St. Charles Police Commend Bars after Hampshire Man Cited

St. Charles police on Friday, April 12, watched a man they said was intoxicated as he staggered and stumbled around the downtown area about midnight, trying to enter one bar after another.

Each time, he was denied entry, and after officers cited the man and sent him off to his home, they returned to the bars to commend them for denying him access.

Clifford William Blanck, 34, of the 15N000 block of Walker Road, Hampshire, was cited at 12:10 a.m. with disorderly conduct-public drunkenness, according to police, who said he appeared highly intoxicated.

As officers watched, Blanck tried to enter , then , then , and finally the beer garden at

Each time he entered an establishment, police said he left moments later, clearly denied entry into the bars.

Police said they returned to the establishments and commended them for denying Blanck entry.

It’s a change of pace from incidents in which police have forwarded reports to the St. Charles Liquor Commission with recommendations for citations for infractions ranging from serving alcohol to an already intoxicated individual to allowing drunken people in when, by city ordinance, they are not allowed to enter the establishments.

It’s an issue that’s been high profile over the past nine months of scrutiny by the St. Charles City Council, upset by drunken brawls, public drunkenness and incidents in which people have urinated in public.

Bar owners have been working with Police Chief Jim Lamkin to resolve the problems, including forming a tavern association to set standards for themselves related to training servers and bouncers, establishing a “banned” list to keep troublemakers out of downtown bars, and establishing a common time for “last call” for drinks at all the bars, among other steps.

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