VIDALIA — In what is starting to sound like a familiar refrain, those interested in the future of Danny’s Lounge are going to have to wait a little longer.

The nightclub’s owners were scheduled to meet with the board of aldermen tonight, and the board’s plan was to give an up-or-down vote on whether to reinstate the business’ liquor license.

But Danny’s co-owner Sandra White received a call from the city Monday telling her the meeting had been postponed, she said.

“I was told it was going to conflict with the ribbon-cutting at Promise Hospital,” White said.

The Promise ribbon-cutting ceremony was a factor in why the city rescheduled the meeting, Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland said.

But the state Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control rescheduled a Wednesday meeting with the nightclub’s owners for April 27, so the city would have rescheduled their meeting anyway, Copeland said.

The ATC is reviewing a January report that the bar had alcohol on its premises after its local license had been revoked, and at a special meeting earlier this month the aldermen said they wanted to know the outcome of that hearing before making a final decision.

The hearing could determine if the nightclub will have a state alcohol permit, and if the club is denied the state permit there is no reason for the city to reinstate its local permit, Copeland said.

“If there is no ruling from the state, there is no reason for us to meet with them,” he said.

The state hearing shouldn’t have anything to do with the local permit, White said.

The bar faced a similar hearing after a clerical error resulted in its license expiring early a few years ago, but the city didn’t wait for the state hearing to reinstate the bar’s liquor license then, she said.

The January incident was a party in which customers brought alcohol to the nightclub, but the club itself did not serve the drinks because they didn’t have a license at the time, White said.

The club’s owners would not have allowed the customers to bring their own drinks if they had known it was not legal to have any alcohol on the site, she said.

The local license was not renewed in December because of complaints about the club.

The police produced 37 reports about the club from 2005 through 2008, but White said only 11 of those reports actually happened at the nightclub.

During the meeting earlier this month, aldermen admitted they had not read all of the reports, and asked for more time to review the matter.

“I acknowledge that certain incidents happened there,” White said.

“But you look at that many years and there are only 11 incidents? That’s nothing.”

The city will schedule the meeting to determine if they will reinstate the bar’s license when they have a ruling from the state in hand, Copeland said.