An Ohio bar sparked a heated debate and was accused of age discrimination after banning patrons younger than 30 on weekends in an effort to combat violence following a naked melee in the parking lot.

Donerick’s Pub in Groveport announced that Friday and Saturday nights would be “30 & up” only with “no exceptions” earlier this month as part of a trial after the apparent disorder at the neighborhood watering hole.

“We will continue to try different things to keep our business safe and cut down on violence,” the bar wrote in the comments of its Facebook post announcing the change. “Keeping our customers safe is our top priority.”

Donerick’s did not name any specific instances of violence in its reasoning, though commenters suggested there was a fight the weekend before.

“I mean the ones that’s fighting and shooting [are] 30 and up [for real],” one person commented.

“It’s really sad,” the establishment replied. “We just want to provide our customers with a fun environment to have some fun in. We will try different methods and see what works best to make everyone safe!”

Several customers suggested imposing a dress code to thwart the violence — but one person said it wouldn’t work, noting a fight involving a completely naked woman that occurred outside the bar.

“A dress code wouldn’t change anything, you can put a turkey in tuxedo it’s still a turkey. One of the girls fighting didn’t have anything on,” the man commented.

“Well one things for sure, I can promise you she did when she entered and left the building!” Donerick’s Pub responded.

The nude brawl in question was captured on video and posted to Instagram two weeks ago with the location set as the local bar and the caption noting the woman was “butt naked.”

The short clip shows a woman — with no clothes or shoes on — tussling with another, fully dressed woman as they pull each other’s hair as a third woman hits the naked woman’s back with a closed fist in a parking lot shared by several businesses, including Donerick’s.

Other people then bend over the duking women and appear to try to separate them before the video ends.

Commenters in the Facebook post, meanwhile, had their own brawl with words.

Many over the new age limit praised the bar for the change — with some even suggesting they should raise it higher to 35 and up or even 40 and up.

“The best decision 35 would be even better this generation is just lost in the sauce it’s sad I hope this makes the difference,” one woman commented.

But others who can no longer patronize the bar on the weekends felt they were unfairly penalized.

“Definitely cannot say I’d ever support an establishment who age discriminates,” a younger woman wrote.

Donerick’s Pub Groveport didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

(ONN) – Wildfires in Canada are likely to bring unhealthy air conditions back to the Buckeye State this summer.

Last year’s wildfires in Canada created unhealthy air quality conditions throughout Ohio in the months of June and July with hazy conditions that forced school sports teams to move practices indoors.

Experts suggest that a warmer and drier than usual summer forecast for this summer will create patterns similar to last year.

With Canadian wildfires in the news again, drifting smoke has yet to be a problem in Ohio with most statewide locations reporting good air quality.

The exceptions, so far, are areas around Toledo, Columbus and Cincinnati which are listed as moderate.

AEP Ohio is asking state regulators to sign off on a new plan to deal with the surge in data centers in central Ohio that is expected to eat up so much electricity in coming years that demand for power in the region will be similar to all of Manhattan.

The power company on Monday asked the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to require data centers to make a 10-year commitment to pay for a minimum of 90% of the electricity they request, even if they use less.

AEP says the new rate structure would also apply to cryptocurrency mining operations.

“In order to protect AEP Ohio customers and future economic development in its service territory, the company wants to help ensure that any large-scale transmission investment is right-sized to serve load that will show up at the time it is committed to show up,” AEP Ohio said in a filing with the PUCO. “This approach should help mitigate any risks that the load may not show up at the level and time indicated or that facilities will be overbuilt to serve the actual load that develops.”

“Demand for computing power from data centers, which require enormous amounts of electricity, is being fueled by artificial intelligence and other new technologies. AEP Ohio is seeing unprecedented demand from data center customers, especially in the central Ohio area,” Marc Reitter, AEP Ohio president and chief operating officer, said in a prepared release.

“While we see no concerns serving current or new residential and existing commercial or industrial customers, we need to ensure that the right long-term investments are made to the electric grid,” Reitter said. “We need accurate plans and solid commitments from large data center customers so the right facilities are built at the right time. This will help us keep Ohio open for business for all industries, while making sure customers aren’t paying for unused infrastructure.”

AEP said adding large users will require investment in new extra-high voltage transmission lines needed to bring more power to the region. Those lines can take seven to 10 years to plan and construct.

Historically, AEP said load growth was expected to be 1%-2% year over year.

“AEP has signed agreements that will nearly double the amount of load served in Ohio in just over five years’ time,” the company said in the filing. “The development of new transmission facilities to serve a new, significant amount of load is dependent upon the customer’s commitment to bringing such large loads online. The amount of investment required to connect in the amount of load already signed is a fraction of the cost required to connect the next batch of large hyperscale loads waiting to connect to the network.”

AEP’s transmission system in central Ohio is serving about 600 megawatts of load from data centers. That’s all come since 2017.

Since then Amazon, Google, Facebook and other companies have built data centers in the region. Amazon last summer announced a $7.8-billion expansion plan of its data service operations in central Ohio.

AEP has agreements for new demand from existing and additional customers to add 4,400 megawatts of power to central Ohio by 2030, making total demand for electricity in the region about equal to that of Manhattan, the company said.

The proposed rate commitment is meant to ensure that existing customers don’t pay for the needed infrastructure to meet the demand from these new customers, especially if they don’t ultimately connect to the system, the company said.

AEP Ohio, a unit of American Electric Power, provides electricity to 1.5 million customers.

mawilliams@dispatch.com

@BizMarkWilliams