The new owner of the Commercial Hotel, Milton has announced the pub will pull its final beer this Sunday, October 15.
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Fifteen staff, suppliers and customers were given six-days notice of the venue’s impending closure.
New owners will settle on the purchase of the hotel on Monday and informed staff they will immediately close for renovations. The pub is slated to reopen again in early 2018.
“I’m petrified,” employee Bec Puglisi said.
“This is my only source of income and I’ve been given six days notice to find another job, don't you just love that.”
Bec said the pub’s current manager, Simon Taffs has been supporting the employees and trying to help them find jobs, so far four have found alternative employment.
“We consider them family, not staff,” regular patron Dean Rattenbury said.
“The worst part is they have done this without any consultation with the locals or the staff.
“We're still in mourning, we don't know what we will do now.
“I guess long term is it in the best interests of the town? Yep maybe, but should they have closed it completely. I don't think so.”
Pub royalty and Milton’s unofficial mayor, John Hancock who has been drinking at The Commercial Hotel for sixty years is upset by the decision.
Every afternoon John puts on his best shirt and suspenders before he pulls up a pew in front of the bar for his schooner of VB, no longer available on tap elsewhere in the area.
“Oh bloody h-ll, I’ve seen some stuff happen here, let me tell you,” he said.
“I’ve been drinking here for sixty years.
“We’d always come in of a Saturday cause I dairy-ed (sic) here. Back then, that up the front was a saloon bar and this was the main bar. It was a penny dearer if you wanted to drink at the saloon bar.”
Employees said they are worried the regulars of the pub, its life blood and soul, will settle into a new routine over the coming months and won’t come back to The Commercial when it reopens.
“This will turn away people from the pub,” Bec said.
“Once they move away they will find their new place and they won't move again.”
“I hope they don't turn it into a boutique hotel and forget the locals,” regular patron Rohan Smith said.
“This place is like the office, it’s where we all do our work. I’m a fencing contractor and I would’ve done jobs for everyone in here.
“It’s not right what they have done, especially to the staff. We aren’t a town, we are a community.
“It's the locals who drink here, not the tourists and these new guys are gonna need our support.
“How will they do during a long winter in July on a Wednesday night without it?”
However, manager Simon Taffs hopes people will still visit and support the pub when it reopens.
“It’s sad, but I don't want this to be a public lynching,” Commercial Hotel manager Simon Taffs said.
“I don't want everyone to walk away from here because of one decision.
“I understand it's hard for people now but it will be bigger and better when it opens again next year.”