Prince George’s Standing Committee on Public Safety met this afternoon (Tuesday), and heard from the owner of Crossroads Brewing.
The local brewery’s downtown location was the victim of a devastating fire that caused $1.8 million in damages on September 5th.
“We have 50 unemployed people because of a crime essentially,” Crossroads Owner Daryl Leiski, flanked by a dozen Crossroads employees, told the Committee.
“We opened eight years ago, the City’s changed a bit since then, it was good up until Covid, got a little worse after that.”
Leiski said there’s been multiple instances where they’ve asked for help from Bylaw Services for needles, human excrement, broken windows, or fires in the back alley.
“I do want to rebuild, but I will not rebuild in this climate, at all. I cannot put people at risk, my people at risk, my money at risk, I just can’t,” he said.
“We’ll have an empty lot down there unless things change dramatically.”
Leiski also noted losing the downtown location also puts his College Heights location at risk, as the downtown location was where Crossroads brewed their beer.
He would later say he’s considering looking at opening in another location for beer production.
He added Breweries from around the province have stepped forward to help them
“Border to border, every brewery has said how can we help, we’ll make your beer, how can we expedite is so we can have some beer production,” Leiski said.
“We can brew off-site, some contract brewing, we’re just trying to figure out how the insurance will work, whether our people can brew in their brewery for WorkSafe purposes.”
He said they have a goal of having beer back by mid-October.
Leiski added that as both a physician and business owner, he has two different perspectives on the issue.
“My business side is very angry with these people,” he said.
“My Doctor side, we need services, we need advocacy for mental health, we need advocacy for addictions, we need solutions for these people. It’s a multi-faceted problem and I understand all of that, but if we can make it safe downtown by keeping businesses safe and the people safe, I think that takes precedent over allowing some of these people to roam.”
Councillor Brian Skakun noted Council will have a meeting with Premier David Eby next week.
He recommended having a letter to pass along to the Premier.
“I really think that they have to really hear what we’re saying,” Skakun said.
“We go in there year after year and we ask for a lot of things, we rarely get any additional police resources and that, but I think this time around with all our meetings, we can get some commitments, and what you had to say today, we can most definitely pass that on, whether it’s in writing or verbal.”
Mayor Simon Yu expressed concern for the 50 employees affected, asking if Crossroads could keep the nucleus together.
Leiski noted he has insurance to ensure employees are guaranteed to receive their wages for three months, but some employees have already started to move on to other positions, particularly servers.
Yu added that overall, statistics are improving, but a tragic event like the Crossroads fire can change perspectives.
The Committee voted to refer a letter from Crossroads to City Council at tomorrow’s meeting, so it could be included in their meeting with Premier Eby next week.
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