NORTH PROVIDENCE - Andrew Sirignano bought Bailey's Pub two years ago to fulfill a longtime aspiration that is shared, he contends, by just about everybody who has worked in hotel and events management as long as his 20 years in the industry.

"You want to own your place," Sirignano said during an interview in his Centredale bar Wednesday night, Jan. 18, with The Breeze.

Unfortunately, for Sirignano his American dream has been a nightmare because of the complaints of neighbors on either side of the 1910 Smith St, business, one of the town's busiest commercial areas.

His situation is similar to that of the owners of The Ruffstone Tavern on Metcalf Avenue and Sunset Bar and Grille on Charles Street, where neighbors have recorded complaints about noisy patrons and loud music.

Council members have taken a dim view of the owners' arguments that they have responded to complaints by lowering the volume and policing their parking lots, which Sirigano finds frustrating.

"The challenge is there is always one person, it is not the consensus of the neighborhood - a lot of my neighbors come in here," Sirignano said on the quiet middle of the week night at early evening. "I am doing everything I can to improve the situation. And I still get complaints from two people who live on either side of my parking lot. One of them complained to the police one time that a car was parked crooked in the lot near the sidewalk."

Sirignano said he has invested $20,000 in the bar since he bought it, including spending to relocate the entire entertainment area from one end of the 2,600 square foot barroom to the other. He has installed two sets of front doors to lessen the amount of music that can be heard outside when patrons are coming and going. He has posted a sign outside the entry asking patrons to be considerate of neighbors.

"But, I can't control people talking loudly in the parking lot," he said. "People want to smoke and they can't smoke indoors, so they stand outside and smoke and talk. I can't compete with someone who keeps watch all the time waiting to hear a pin drop."

District 1 Town Council member Mansuet J. Giusti has spearheaded the council's increased vigilance of neighbor's complaints about bar room noise. He has led the council to hold hearings with the entertainment licenses of the bars at stake. Sirignano faces an upcoming hearing.

"Councilor Giusti has never come in here to talk to me about the complaints he gets," Sirignano said. "I'm a taxpayer, I operate a business in his district. I'm paying $1,200 in taxes a month, plus $2,000 a year for tangible taxes. I employ people. I have all kinds of benefits in here. I enjoy doing special functions: parties, fund-raisers that we've had for a neighbor who is a cancer patient, for someone in town who got burned out of their apartment."

The town no longer permits bars to remain with 2 a.m. closings, which draws away business to Providence establishments, Sirignano said.

"And now you want to go after my entertainment license?" Sirignano asked.

Giusti told The Breeze, Monday, Jan. 23, that he has never gone into Bailey's although "I sat outside one time and heard the music it was so loud."

Asked why he doesn't go to the business to inquire about the complaints that have been lodged, Giusti said, "I don't go drinking. I'm not a bar person. I just don't go to bars. I go down and I listen to the complaint from the constituent."

Sirignano thinks that as a taxpayer and the owner of a business in the district that Giusti represents that he deserves equal treatment.

"I'm not one-sided," Giusti said. "One time I went down there and I heard the music. Look, I'm not after the guy. I've been on the council for seven years and half the time it seems like I'm hearing complaints about The Ruffstone and Bailey's. After a while you get tired of it. I want it resolved."