The owner of a popular campus-area bar was removed from a powerful city committee by the Madison-Dane County Tavern League for health reasons, its president said Thursday. Barb Mercer, the league’s president for over 13 years, said she would temporarily take over as the nonvoting member position on the Alcohol License Review Committee from Marsh Shapiro, owner of the Nitty Gritty, which has locations near campus at 223 N. Frances St. and in Middleton. Shapiro, 71, who was on the ALRC for more than six years, was removed “because of the stress and his well-being and his business being scrutinized as our representative,” Mercer said. At an Oct. 21 ALRC meeting, Shapiro said he opposed putting a student on the committee, which prompted UW-Madison’s student newspapers to run editorials two days later calling for a boycott of the Nitty Gritty.
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