AUSTINTOWN — The Zodiac Club Lounge and Grill is closed, and township officials want to make sure it stays that way.

After shots were fired in the club’s parking lot Dec. 14, the wheels of government turned fast as police, trustees and administrators sought to bring operations to a halt at the troubled bar.

“We’ve been in contact with the building ownership and indirectly with the manager through his attorney,” said Township Administrator Mark D’Apolito. “We have, at this point, gotten them voluntarily to cease operations.”

The club was not open this past weekend, and D’Apolito said the locks have been changed and the Zodiac’s street sign has been removed.

Attorney Scott Cochran, representing property owner Eli Alexander, said on Thursday he already was in the process of evicting the Zodiac, a tenant at 169 S. Four Mile Run Road, and had reached an agreement with bar manager Brian Vandusen to close immediately and not reopen.

On Monday, trustees passed a resolution to object to the renewal of the Zodiac’s liquor license, hoping to prevent Vandusen from reopening it at that location or any other in the township.

“This is just a rerun of the problems we had for over 20 years at Wedgewood Lanes,” said Zoning Inspector Darren Crivelli. “I never want to see a liquor license there, I never want to see a bar / restaurant there. It’s just going to be the same problems. I would tell any elected official don’t ever approve another liquor license there, no matter what they come to you with.”

Trustees also agreed to Crivelli’s recommendation to declare the property a nuisance but they stopped short of rezoning the property to allow only professional services businesses to operate there.

Crivelli said the property and the two parcels around it are zoned B2. Changing it to a B1 zoning designation would prohibit any bar or restaurant from opening there and trustees said they did not want to inhibit any prospective new owners.

Cochran said on Thursday that Alexander does not intend to reopen any such establishment in the building. Trustees noted Monday that the building has been up for sale for most of a year now.

Crivelli and D’Apolito said some party buses and refuse remain on the lot. The nuisance resolution gives them 14 days to remove all of it.

A U-Haul remains parked in front of the door while the bar removes the last of its property from the building, and D’Apolito said all liquor has been secured at another licensed establishment somewhere outside the township.

The board tabled the zoning change but can revisit it at any time should the need arise.