The windows of Finnigan's Irish Pub may be darkened after the Oct. 12 raid that netted 147 underage citations, but that doesn't mean Benchwarmer's owner Steve Mitchell is happy about the reduced competition.

"Business creates business. The more people in the downtown area the better," Mitchell said. "I'll get my share."

Despite the early morning Jan. 25 raid on Benchwarmer's that netted 18 underage arrests, Mitchell refuses to compare his establishment with the likes of Finnegan's, ICONN and Bridget McGuire's Filling Station.

"As far as raids are concerned. I'm not worried because I've got good guys at the door. My philosophy is that I don't want underagers," he said.

When a bar gets busted, a variety of consequences can result. As with ICONN and Bridget's, liquor licenses were immediately revoked. Bridget's owner Karen Bauer transformed her underage bar into Molly McGuire's, a coffee house for all ages, when her bar was busted on Jan. 30, 1998.

Bauer said that she was unaware of the heavy underage patronage to Bridget's, blaming the bust on incompetent bouncers at the door. She said owning and managing Molly's much easier than owning Bridget's was.

"I can control what is going on now. I guess I learned this lesson the hard way," she said. "Most students don't know about Bridget's and I don't want them to. It is all about Molly's right now. Everybody comes together in this place and everybody feels welcome."

For Bauer, opening up Molly's took months of preparation and planning. After seeing a Starbuck's commercial on television three days after the Bridget's bust, she decided to continue her business in a new direction.

"I went in there with a bottle of disinfectant and a putty knife. It took nine months, and voila, Molly's came. It was like giving birth," Bauer said.

ICONN owners changed their bar into a young adult dance club called the Four Penny Oasis. The owners of Finnegan's were unavailable for comment on the fate of their establishment.

Both Bauer and Mitchell agree that increases in the availability and quality of fake ID's contribute to underage busts. They said Internet and student-made ID's can be just as authentic-looking as the real ones.

"For years, people have been making ID's. We check pretty close. But with these new ID's it is really tough to tell which ones are fake and which ones are real," Mitchell said, adding that he thinks students are more responsible now about drinking and driving than they were ten years ago.

"The fake ID stuff is unfortunate, but it happened when I was in school," said Bauer, a 1974 graduate of Saint Mary's. "But people didn't have cars then, so there was no fear of drinking behind the wheel."

Bauer recalled a much different bar scene when she was a Belle. She said Eddy Street was the place to be, with one bar after another running up and down the street. Both Bauer and Mitchell agree that the nation's current drinking age should be reevaluated.

"I think 18 year olds should be allowed to drink. You could get drafted and go lose your life but you can't drink a beer?" Mitchell said. "But, the laws is the law and you've got to obey the law."

"I don't think the government will ever change it. It's just going to get tighter and tighter," Bauer said.

Bauer offered some advice to the other bars in town – and the underage drinkers getting into them.

"Anyone in the bar business should know, it's a time bomb,"

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