City Mulls Alcohol; Residents Speak Out
Approximately 300 people filled the council chambers, lined the hall, filled the lobby and overflowed into an additional room to let the Douglasville City Council members know how they feel about changing the City's alcohol laws.
Three proposed changes to Douglasville's alcohol laws were on the agenda and attracted a capacity crowd to last night's City Council work session meeting. The alcohol agenda items were:
- Allow restaurants to extend pouring hours from midnight on Saturday to 2 a.m. on Sunday.
- Change food-to-alcohol percentage ratios from 60/40 to 51/49 in restaurants holding Sunday alcohol permits.
- Allow residents to vote on Sunday sales on the Nov. 6 ballot.
The Council's first order of business was to unanimously approve extended pouring hours during Saturday's Cinco de Mayo holiday, allowing restaurants to serve alcohol until 2 a.m. Sunday morning. The council passed the same one-time law for St. Patrick's Day last month. Both holidays fell on a Saturday this year. The Council took about five minutes to conduct the vote during a specially-called meeting.
Before residents were allowed to speak during the work session portion of the meeting, Mayor Harvey Persons pointed out that no decisions would be made Thursday night; the meeting was for discussion only. The Council will vote on Monday, May 7, at 7:30 p.m. Persons said the Council is not required to listen to public comments regarding these issues but they would enable the Council to make better decisions on Monday.
Mayor Pro Tem Larry Yockey began by clarifying what he said was some bad information on the street regarding what the Council is trying to accomplish with the new alcohol measures. He said it was unfair to say that any of Douglasville's restaurants could be considered bars.
"This does not open the door to businesses like strip clubs to open in our fine city," he said. "We'll be able to compete with surrounding cities. The changes are not just for a few restaurants, they're for our new $14 million conference center. Old, outdated regulations are standing in the way."
He said restaurants will be able to pour alcohol until 2 a.m. on Sunday, a change from the originally proposed 2:55 a.m. time, which would have matched the County's law.
"We listened to the citizens, took their advice, and we changed it," he said.
Residents were allowed to speak for an hour on each agenda item, 30 minutes were allowed for those in favor of the new alcohol measures and 30 minutes for those speaking against. Each resident was allowed five minutes to speak.
Ten people spoke who were opposed to extending pouring hours and seven spoke in favor. Seven residents spoke out against changing the food-to-alcohol ratio and one spoke out in favor of the proposed change, former Douglasville City Councilman Terry Miller.
Three residents spoke against putting Sunday alcohol sales on a Nov. 6 ballot. Another three residents let the Council know they are in favor of allowing residents the opportunity to vote, even though they are not necessarily for allowing Sunday sales.
Councilwoman LaShun Burr-Danley agreed with those in favor of allowing residents to vote on a Sunday sales referendum.
"I was born in 1966 and my forefathers did not have the opportunity to vote," she said. "I do believe in people having the right to decide. I will not vote for Sunday sales but I think people should have the right to decide."
Carl Pyrdum Jr.
9:17 am on Friday, May 4, 2012
Extended hours mean extended dangers. It's simple reasoning. The more people who are allowed more time to drink, the more impaired drivers are on our roads. Once they finish drinking how do they get home? There simply is no justification for either extended hours or for changing the percentages of food served to alcohol, other than the reality of more more profits for the bars and restaurants. At what cost in lives do we abandon reason for profit?
It isn't about competing with metro Atlanta unless the concern is to compete with the numbers of impaired drivers, major accidents and fatalities that Atlanta and the larger counties share.
I spent thirty years patrolling the streets of Atlanta and observing first hand the death and destruction wrought by irresponsible people and alcohol and drugs. As a community, we should not be contributing to the problem or facilitating irresponsible drinkers simply to increase our coffers by a few pieces of silver.
Normal people aren't eating dinner at 2 AM in the morning, therefore, extended hours for restaurants is a ruse. Changing the percentages and the times of serving doesn't really accomplish anything aside from allowing bars that serve food a work around of the law.
We lost two young men this past week on Post Rd. Reportedly involving impaired driving by another young man. How many more lives need we lose before common sense is applied and reasoning governs our choices as a community.
Janice Goad
11:09 am on Friday, May 4, 2012
This is the same old worn-out argument some citizens used YEARS ago to fight alcohol sales in Douglas County, period! They didn't want their county residents driving drunk. Who does? But people who want to drink -- at any hour -- will find a way to do it. Back then they drove up to Fulton Industrial Boulevard and had to navigate their way all the way back out I-20, Bankhead Highway or Fairburn Rd./Campbellton Rd. Prohibition SHOULD have taught us that you cannot legislate morality. It doesn't work.
And then there's the argument that "normal people aren't eating dinner at 2 AM" -- which implies that if you work a 3:00 to 11:00 or 4:00 to midnight shift you are somehow not "normal". Good grief, who on this earth has the right to declare WHEN SOMEBODY EATS DINNER as the gauge for being normal? I operated a 24/7 answering service in this county for many years, and I can assure you that when my operators got off work at midnight, they often went to dinner. How condescending to insinuate that those people who are getting off work when everybody else is going to bed are not "normal"! Doctors, nurses, even police officers, can many times be found eating dinner at 2:00 a.m.
Applying common sense and using reason to govern our choices WOULD save lives, and parents should be teaching their kids about speeding, texting and driving, talking on their phones, changing CDs -- and drinking and driving. Again, you can NOT legislate morality, or good sense.
Jim J
4:40 pm on Friday, May 4, 2012
I also take exception Mr. Pyrdum's statement, "normal people aren't eating dinner at 2 AM". How pompous a statement is that? I used to work late weekend nights and would regularly be done with work around 1 AM and was eating dinner somewhere. Usually Waffle House and that got old. Nothing against Waffle House.
Richard Nichols
10:23 pm on Friday, May 4, 2012
OK, let's get really real here. The government taxes alcohol sales and charges for alcohol licenses. Then they pull you over for partaking of too much alcohol, put you through the justice system and take your money if you are irresponsible in your alcohol usage.
Now, what are we bickering back and forth about? I don't believe that people should drive drunk or impaired. However, any person over the age of 21 can go over to a package store and purchase all the liquor they want to last them for a week, and drive not only after drinking but while drinking. This has nothing to do with whether a restaurant can or should sell alcohol, it is actually a silly argument.
However, if we are going to make laws about it, let's consider several things: the cops are not going to like any law that allows more alcohol, because it makes their jobs harder. The people driving up and down our roads want the assurance that the number of impaired drivers are minimized. The eating and drinking establishments want to make as many profits as they can while not finding themselves embroiled in lawsuits about alcohol sales.
In the final analysis, if we are competing with other counties about who makes the most money off alcohol sales at what time, then one bit of logic is that people who get drunk over here have fewer miles to drive and therefore provide less of a safety issue than if they have to drive many more miles. They will drink anyway. Deal with it. I just hope they don't kill anybody.
Carl Pyrdum Jr.
10:20 am on Sunday, May 6, 2012
Thank you Ms. Goad for your less than enlightened criticism; however, in your haste you failed to comprehend or address the issues. The discussion is whether to extend the hours for the sale of alcohol by restaurants and whether to change the percentage of food sales by restaurants to justify a lowered threshold for the sale of more alcohol by more restaurants.
You obviously failed to comprehend both the issues and my comments, as did LeeR.
The article posted cites specifics. Whether or not to: "Allow restaurants to extend pouring hours from midnight on Saturday to 2 a.m. on Sunday." and whether or not to: "Change food-to-alcohol percentage ratios from 60/40 to 51/49 in restaurants holding Sunday alcohol permits."
Those were the points I was addressing and I see no justifiable reasoning for either proposal, aside from the sole purpose of increased profits and revenue.
Ms. Goad, the issue is not about when someone eats diner, the issue is whether or not they should be allowed to consume alcohol into the wee hours of the morning, while utilizing a food service provision in the law to do so.
As someone who has spent decades working night shifts, I never found the need to go have a drink with my meal at those hours of the night, perhaps your experiences are different.
As for your rather dog eared defenses for drinking and driving, I believe that you should consider your own remarks and possibly try tempering your own emotions before attacking others.
twinsdad
1:57 pm on Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Take drunk drivers off the road by allowing them to purchase their beer or liquor and stay home drink it. There is not one case where morality has ever been effectively legislated. There are laws on the books that are supposed to protect from murder, robbery, theft, drugs, rape, and every other possible danger and yet we live in the most dangerous society ever! It's time to promote some common sense.