The reopening of a local nightclub, which has been closed for a month, is being postponed indefinitely to find new management.

Ed Heller, attorney for Ed Wilmering, the owner of the building that contained Smil’in Jacks, approached the Carbondale Local Liquor Commission Tuesday.

Heller announced that a contract has not been reached to manage Mardi Gras, the business that will replace Smil’in Jacks, 760 E. Grand Ave.

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We have had a difficulty in our plan of getting the business reopened, he said. The arrangement with the people who were going to manage this for the owner have not come to the terms that were agreed to.

Heller requested that the commission delay action until new management could be arranged. Wilmering will hold the liquor license, but new management will oversee day-to-day operation of the club.

The commission was scheduled to vote on a request for a liquor license transfer from Smil’in Jacks Inc., to Mardi Gras Inc. If approved, the club was to be operated by representatives from Chadwick’s Bar & Grill, 204 W. College St.

Heller also told the commission that Wilmering decided not to do business with the representatives from Chadwick’s.

We were not successful in getting the pieces of it put together with them (Chadwick’s), he said after the meeting, and from Mr. Wilmering’s point of view, it’s time to move on.

Representatives from Chadwick’s were unavailable for comment.

The commission voted unanimously to postpone consideration of the license transfer indefinitely, allowing Wilmering to secure a management contract.

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City Clerk Janet Vaught noted that the applicants need only appear before the commission and not the Liquor Advisory Board because the business still will be called Mardi Gras.

Heller said Smil’in Jacks initially closed a month ago because of a lease violation by Leland Hartsfield, the business’ owner.

Smil’in Jacks closed down because he violated his lease in about every way you could violate a lease, Heller said. We went to court and were going to throw him out, and we made an agreement to resolve the issue by which he would agree to leave, and he did.

Hartsfield could not be reached for comment.

Heller could not predict a reopening date for the business, but said he hopes to be ready for the license transfer at the first December commission meeting.

We cannot reopen until we have the liquor license transferred, he said. We hope to be back to accomplish that next month.

At the regular Carbondale City Council meeting, the council voted 5 to 0 to approve $ 3,125 for cultural diversity workshops for city employees. Each employee will be required to attend one of five sessions.

City Manager Jeff Doherty said Carbondale Police officers will be exempt because they have attended similar workshops, the most recent of which was last summer.

The council also voted 4 to 1 to appoint Councilman Larry Briggs to the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau.