In The Name Of Public Safety, Mayor Sarno To Refuse To Sign Off On 2020 Entertainment And Liquor Licenses For the Mt. Carmel Society – “Not The Place Where I Used To Bring My Grandfather After Family Dinners”

SPRINGFIELD, MA – Mayor Domenic J. Sarno States, “I have instructed City Solicitor Ed Pikula to notify the Mt. Carmel Society that I will not sign-off on their 2020 Entertainment / Liquor Licenses in the name of public safety.  In addition, I have instructed Solicitor Pikula to contact Attorney General Maura Healey to review the Society’s charitable status.  This is not the place where I used to bring my Grandfather after Sunday family dinner in order that he might socialize with his friends. It certainly is not the society where I volunteered as a young man years ago to assist with the once popular Italian Festivals.  “The illegal activities at the Mt. Carmel Society, which were discovered as a result of a federal investigation, are an embarrassment to the Italian American Community.”  Out of respect to the founders and the hundreds of members over the past century of the once great Mt. Carmel Society and to the many Italian-Americans who have approached me in disgust over this situation – “Until the leadership and direction of the Mt. Carmel Society changes, I will not approve the entertainment / liquor licenses.”