EXETER — About 10 residents who wanted to discuss a change in an amendment to the Boone Lake Dam Management District waited through 90 minutes of Town Council business last night only to learn that instead of hearing comments, the council intended only to set a hearing date.

The council voted unanimously to hold its July meeting at the Metcalf School on July 7, a date and place to accommodate Boone Lake’s summer residents who might want a say.

Boone Lake Improvement Association President Gary Casaly said the change was to clarify who could vote in the dam management district.

Under the ordinance creating the management district, each parcel or contiguous parcels jointly owned have one vote each. If more than one person owns a parcel, the owners present at any meeting jointly designate one as the Eligible Voter, and that person’s vote will represent the wishes of all the owners.

The amendment would specify that only voters present at a meeting will be able to decide which owner gets to be the Eligible Voter.

The management district was formed on Dec. 11, 2007, when the Town Council appointed the initial members of the board of directors: Casaly as assessor/collector, Cindy Saunders-Earnshaw as clerk and D. Joseph Fulford as treasurer.

Casaly said the board had tentatively scheduled a meeting for members in September. Members are all property owners in the Boone Lake area, which is between Route 165 and Austin Farm Road just west of Route 95.

The district’s web site, http://www.boonelakedam.com/ has a link to the ordinance.

Before they vacated the public seating area in front of the Town Council table, the Boone Lake residents watched the council award a Class B Victualer license to Gashy Dowlatshahi for a bar/restaurant that will be known as Gashy’s across Route 2 from Oak Harbor Village.

Dowlatshahi’s license was the town’s 12th. Council members then voted to cap the town’s number of liquor licenses at 13.

During public comment, Dowlatshahi told the council that he had changed his plan for an office and retail park for the rest of the property and wanted to build a driving range instead. The council told him to speak with the zoning inspector.

“The economy died,” he said outside, explaining why he’d changed his plans. “Until the economy comes back,” he said, he thought he would put “something green and pretty in the back” of his bar/restaurant, which is likely to be a 16,000-square-foot building with room for shops and offices.

He said Fiddlesticks occupied a site with a revenue-generating business until all the elements were in place for development. That site in North Kingstown is now a Super Stop & Shop plaza with other retail shops, a bank and a drive-through Starbucks.

He said he envisioned batting cages and miniature golf as well as a driving range.

The play area would begin 400 feet from the road.

Golfers and batters would hit away from Route 2, of course.

The elevated site is flat on top, and goes back 1,500 to 2,000 feet, he said.

“It has a beautiful view.”

dnaylor@projo.com