“I’ve run this bar for 15 years,” said H&H Lounge manager Lily Gross, who was packing up mugs, kegs, bar stools and signs Tuesday morning, following the bar’s closing on Monday. “I really don’t understand what’s going on - they came in here last fall and decided we couldn’t stay open - why they’re choosing this area, I don’t know.”

H&H Lounge, at 817 W. Ave. G, was one of several businesses near Martha’s Kitchen that was inspected twice by the city of Temple last October as part of the city’s strategic investment zone initiative to crack down on code violations.

“Most of those have come under voluntary compliance, Assistant City Manager Kim Foutz said of businesses that were inspected. “We’re following up with the particular inspection results we had for these facilities.”

In the case of H&H, the inspections led to a closure.

“It hurts. We just paid to have our beer and food licenses renewed, so we’ll lose that money,” an emotional Gross said. “We had a lot of regular folks coming in here everyday. It wasn’t like they were causing trouble, they were people who would drink coffee in the morning before work, and just wanted to have people to talk to - a lot of people never drank (alcohol).”

Gross leased the building holding the lounge for $175 per week from owner Jerry Adams.

“I feel very bad for her, and I feel very bad for me,” Adams said. “I don’t have any income coming in from that building now either.”

Adams said he believed businesses along the block are being unfairly targeted.

On Thursday, the city refused to release documents pertaining to the inspections along the block. Assistant City attorney Randy Stoneroad cited a Texas government code and a state attorney general opinion deeming the inspections were part of a division on law enforcement and an ongoing investigation.

“The violations are considered misdemeanor criminal offenses,” Stoneroad said. “For that reason, we can’t give out the information. It’s considered as being under investigation, so we could seek possible prosecution (for the violations).

“We’ve had folks in the past discuss these items (inspections) in court,” he said. “By releasing that information, it may have an impact on the investigations.”

City spokeswoman Shannon Gowan said the city performed two days of inspections, on Oct. 23 and 28, last year, along west avenue’s H and G. “I have been told that we checked almost every building in that area,” she said.

Gisela Standard, owner of the Side Track bar at 1010 W. Ave. G, said her building was inspected.

“They came out here last fall, and they asked us to make some repairs,” Standard said. “I never really had a problem with it. I’m glad they’re making the inspections, and I’m glad they’re trying to close down Martha’s Kitchen - that’s where the crime comes from.”

The process

None of what the city is doing makes sense to Adams.

“That building has been there for probably more than 50 years, and had always been occupied (by different bar managers and owners),” he said. “It’s not worth much money - it might have a value of $35,000.”

Adams said when the city was finished inspecting the lounge, the cost of repairs to the building would’ve been about $26,000.

“Why would I make $26,000 in repairs to a building that’s only worth $35,000?” Adams asked. “The things they were seeking to have repaired were very vague. It was a list, and it would say there was a problem with a window, or something in the parking lot.

“They didn’t give us much of a heads up either. I remember getting a letter in the mail asking if we could meet with code enforcement officials, and a couple of days later, I went up (to the lounge) and they had already been there,” he said.

Adams said after the inspections he was notified that he’d have a meeting before the city’s Buildings and Standards Commission, which is the department that ordered the closure of Martha’s Kitchen. The closure has since been delayed pending a district court appeal and restraining order.

“During the meeting, there was a guy Richard (Therriault, the city’s director of construction safety) who basically stood up and said he wanted us shut down,” Adams said. “It was so strange, because he said, ‘I want to go on the record and say we’re not targeting anyone’ in the Avenue G area.

“But at the same time they are, and they’ve gone on record saying they are,” he said. “It’s part of their plan. It really bothered me.”

The crackdown

According to the appeal Martha’s Kitchen filed, last year the city began an “unprecedented level of inspections of Martha’s Kitchen,” both in the number of inspections and repair requests against the shelter.

Many people cited issues involving crime in the area along Avenue G as a reason to support the reinvestment plan. Temple Police Chief Gary Smith said his department had adopted a “no-tolerance” policy in the area when the plan was approved, saying there were issues with prostitution and illegal activities in the area.

But, Smith said, the solution is not a police issue alone.

“Police departments can’t by themselves resolve embedded crime problems in an area as large as we’re talking about on avenue(s) G and H,” he said. “It takes a wide variety of city departments, but it also takes public concern and investment, whether monetary, time, effort ... it takes a community to come together to resolve embedded crime problems in an area as large as this.”

Smith said businesses such as bars and motels in the area could be “tangentially” related to the problem.

In 2007, former Ambassador Motel owner Abdul Halim Ellam was arrested on charges he intentionally and knowingly provided rooms for individuals to engage in drug- and prostitution-related activities. Ellam was charged by a federal grand jury in Waco under the Establishment of Manufacturing Operations law, which makes it illegal to knowingly rent rooms to those using it for “unlawfully manufacturing, storing, distributing or using a controlled substance,” according to the federal criminal code.

The Ambassador Motel eventually was shut down, and in March 2008 Ellam was sentenced to three years probation for the charge.

None of that matters to Gross, who isn’t sure what she was going to do next.

“I don’t have any plans on opening a bar anyplace else,” Gross said. “Those people who said that we were supporting prostitutes are wrong. We served everyone, we didn’t ask women if they were prostitutes when they walked in our doors - if we had issues with someone, they were asked to leave.”

Adams said he believes “(the city) wants bare land from First Street to 21st Street.

“By going after these business, they’re going to lose tax dollars - nothing they’re doing seems to be making much sense. If that building were in another area, they would’ve never went after it,” he said.