YOUNGSTOWN — The city dropped its nuisance suit against The Social Bar because the business no longer has a liquor license.

“The license that allowed The Social to operate is expired and canceled” by the state’s Division of Liquor Control, said James Vivo, the city’s first assistant law director who was handling the case.

Vivo added: “It’s a good resolution. We were confident we’d keep the place closed through the nuisance proceedings, but there’s no need to do that now. We accomplished what we wanted but in a different way.”

The liquor license for the downtown bar on the ground floor of Erie Terminal Place on West Commerce Street was canceled Dec. 3, according to liquor control. It failed to be renewed last year and again this year.

“There is an appeal period to file for reconsideration and after you miss the deadline, which was Nov. 30 or Dec. 1, the license is considered canceled by the state of Ohio,” Vivo said.

The liquor license holder was Off the Rail LLC, which was owned by Ryan Sheridan who gave power of attorney to his wife Kristin M. Sheridan. The two are going through divorce proceedings.

Ryan Sheridan was sentenced Jan. 22, 2020, to serve 7 1/2 years in federal prison for engineering a $24.5 million Medicare fraud as the owner of Braking Point Recovery Center.

Off the Rail was in the process of selling the liquor license to The Social, which was operated by Fahd Daniel, but it wasn’t finalized, Vivo said.

Attempts Friday to reach John N. Zomoida Jr., attorney for The Social and Daniel, were unsuccessful. Vivo said he told Zomoida about dismissing the nuisance case before he filed the paperwork Friday with Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

A permanent injunction request for a nuisance case is good for a year, Vivo said.

The Social Bar was shut down Aug. 26 after being declared a nuisance and boarded up.

Judge Anthony D’Apolito and Magistrate James A. Melone granted the city’s request for a temporary restraining order to close the bar on that day.

The city complaint stated in the preceding six months that Youngstown police issued several criminal complaints against The Social including four for serving minors, four for disorderly conduct by way of intoxication, three for possession of marijuana, four weapons charges, five for assaults and five for fighting or altercations among patrons.

If The Social were to somehow get the state to issue it a liquor license, it would be well past Aug. 26, 2022, so there is no reason for the city to continue the nuisance matter in court, Vivo said.

While The Social was boarded up by the city, it doesn’t have to remain that way any longer, Vivo said.

“That’s because a nuisance doesn’t exist, but there can be no operation of a business serving alcohol there,” he said.

The business opened Oct. 31, 2020.

During a scheduled Nov. 30 permanent injunction hearing, Melone, on behalf of D’Apolito, recused themselves from the case because D’Apolito’s father, Lou, an assistant city law director and former common pleas court judge, met with lawyers involved in the case prior to the hearing.

Zomoida urged the case to proceed saying he didn’t see a conflict, but Melone declined.

It was reassigned to a visiting judge, Edward E. O’Farrell, a retired Tuscarawas County judge.

That hearing was scheduled for Wednesday, but with the city’s notice of dismissal, it is canceled.