NEWS
THE OSWEGONIAN FRIDAY, Sept. 11, 2014
A5
The Ferris Wheel opens despite obstacles Hurricanes Bar closed, re-opened in new location this past summer
Robert Newhook | The Oswegonian
Robert Newhook | The Oswegonian Located at 6 Market St. across from Water Street Cafe, The Ferris Wheel hopes to welcome an older crowd in its lower level establishment.
Travis Clark Managing Editor tclark@oswegonian.com For five years, Hurricanes Bar was an established and popular nightlife attraction among Oswego State students. Opening in 2010, the bar and dance club was located on Water St. across from Water Street Café and Old City Hall. This summer, in mid-May, Hurricanes unexpectedly closed. Chip Tesoriero, the owner of the former Hurricanes Bar, has moved his business just next door in what used to be Club Crystal. Club Crystal closed in 2011 after the New York State Liquor Authority revoked its liquor license due to numerous liquor violations. Tesoriero opened what is now The Fer-
ris Wheel and the current Hurricanes dance club on July 23, the Thursday of Harborfest. Ferris Wheel is located on the lower level, while Hurricanes is upstairs. “We were waiting on our health department inspection, building inspection, but it all came together late, late Wednesday afternoon and we were able to open Thursday,” Tesoriero said. “It was an interesting battle, journey, whatever you want to call it.” According to Tesoriero, what made the battle so interesting was Tesoriero’s relationship with the landlord of the former Hurricanes establishment, John Constanza. Constanza increased his monthly rent from $2,250 to $3,500 in the final month of Tesoriero’s lease, according to Tesoriero. Despite Tesoriero still paying the rent, Constanza did not renew his lease, according to Tesoriero. Upon being evicted, Tes-
oriero was forced to relocate his business. “The place was a mess, [Constanza] wouldn’t put anything into it. I’m not an engineer and I don’t want to pretend to be, but as far as maintenance is concerned, if I didn’t fix it, it wouldn’t get fixed,” Tesoriero said. “He clearly wanted to take over my business, for free. I got crazy lines out the door over there, and now all of a sudden he doesn’t renew my lease, he wants crazy money.” Constanza was the owner of Toucans Tropical Bar before it closed and Hurricanes moved into the premises. The current Wi-Fi connection for the premises, now that Hurricanes is no longer established there, is called “2CANS,” which makes Tesoriero question what Constanza plans to do with the vacant location. “Since May, Constanza hasn’t collected any rent over there,” Tesoriero said. “When
The Ferris Wheel recieved its New York State liquor license in July, just in time for Harborfest weekend.
a guy pays his rent on time, there’s got to be another ulterior motive.” According to the New York State Liquor Authority, the liquor license for Toucans LLC expired in March 2010 and is currently inactive. At this time, Constanza could not be reached for further comment regarding the closing of Toucans or Hurricanes, nor any further plans he may have for the premises. Despite the hurdles, Tesoriero is happy with the transition. “We have a lot more capacity, a lot more square footage, a much more friend-
ly facility, a much better conditioned facility, electrical, structure, everything,” Tesoriero said. Tesoriero said he would like to open a kitchen in the lower level within a year. He also thinks that the name offers a good amount of nostalgia for Oswego locals, and Tesoriero himself, as the premises was called Ferris Wheel many years ago. “The name ‘The Ferris Wheel’ has really brought a smile to a lot of middle-aged people,” Tesoriero said. “I met my wife there, we kissed there, I used to play guitar there in my 20s.”
Lakeside suspect remains in custody University Police responded immediately to call from Waterbury Hall ARREST from COVER Patterson still refused to comply when Lt. Mark Dermody and Officer David Wooden arrived on the scene. After the officers informed Patterson that he could be arrested for false personation if he refused to give his real name and present his ID, Patterson continued to give a false name but did reveal that he was not a student. Rossi was unable to comment on his past or present academic records. Patterson gave the officers permission to look through his bag for an ID, but the officers did not find anything. According to Rossi, while the officers were looking through his bag, Patterson became “very irate” and started yelling obscenities at the officers. Patterson then began to raise his hands toward one of the officers. Due to his lack of compliance, the officers decided to arrest Patterson for the false personation charge. Patterson struggled in the arrest, threatening the officers’ lives, spitting, threatening to cut them and kicking at the officers. As they were trying to get him into handcuffs, he was still not compliant and the officers had to use pepper spray on him, but he continued to struggle. Once he was put in the back of the University Police car, Patterson used his legs to try to kick out the window. University Po-
lice officers had to restrain his legs. When Dermody tried to restrain his legs, Patterson kicked him in the face resulting in minor injuries to Dermody leaving a cut on the inside of his cheek.
Photo provided by University Police Department Joshua Patterson arrested for assault on Sept. 4 .
He was then brought down to the University Police station, where he complained that he was injured. University Police immediately called SAVAC ambulance service to treat Patterson and Dermody. According to Rossi, after SAVAC arrived Patterson became “extremely hostile.” He
refused to listen to SAVAC’s directions and started to spit on one of the members of SAVAC. He was brought to the emergency room at 12:26 a.m. and immediately refused treatment. He was verbally disrespectful toward all hospital staff and continued to threaten University Police officers, SAVAC members and hospital staff. According to Rossi, since Patterson was not operating a vehicle and no serious physical injury or death was involved in the incident, there was no allowance for a toxicology test to see if there were any substances involved in Patterson’s agitated behavior. They do not know what might have been the cause for it. He returned back to the police station at 1:04 a.m., where he was processed and arraigned in the Town of Oswego court in front of Judge Donald Dodd. Patterson remains at the Oswego County jail on $20,000 bail. Patterson’s interactions were caught on video in the booking room at the University Police Station as well as the exterior camera of Riggs Hall. “The officers handled it in a textbook fashion, the way they were trained,” Rossi said. “They used tremendous restraint because he was just agitated and continued to threaten their lives, their family’s lives. They used the exact amount of force that they needed to bring him into custody and he was not injured during the struggle.”
Robert Newhook | The Oswegonian The Ferris Wheel now resides in Club Crystal’s former location; Hurricanes still occupies the top level.
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