| OCR Text |
Show Club, Bar Owners Give Liquor Plan Cool Reception Park Citys proposed liquor and beer regulatory license got a cool reception by local bar and clubowners who turned out for a public hearing on the subject last Thursday evening. The license ordinance calls for all establishments that dispense alcoholic beverages in Park City to take out a $25 annual license. The ordinance ordi-nance also sets forth the circumstances under which the Chief of Police can at his discretion suspend temporarily tempor-arily an establishment's license for a 24-hour period. According to the ordinance the Chief can suspend the license, ordering the establishment estab-lishment closed for 24-hours twice. After the third offense the license is suspended sus-pended until a hearing is held before the City Council to show cause why the tance in removing a difficult patron, but I would rather see the bar owner remove the difficult customer before he gets so difficult that police officers are needed". "Bartenders in Park City" Bell adds, "seem to have a tendency to pour another drink down an intoxicated individual and then reach for the phone to call the police to throw him out". At the hearing Thursday, attorney Ed Simmons who represents a number of bar and club owners said he thought the terms "intoxicated" "intoxi-cated" and "immoral bois-trous bois-trous conduct" need to be more clearly defined. The attorney wondered if PCPD officers would regularly appear ap-pear in bars to administer breathalizer tests to customers. custo-mers. Chief Frank Bell responded that would hardly suspension should not be permanent. The City Manager has in all cases the right to override the Chiefs decision regarding the suspension sus-pension of a license. Some of the infractions that could draw a license suspension include: selling alcohol to minors, nersisfant fights, serving alcohol to intoxicated persons, gambling, persistent persis-tent use of drugs on premises, remaining open after hours, serving drinks to non-members at private clubs. PCPD Chief Frank Bell said the ordinance does not represent a "get tough policy" as far as the city's bars and clubs are concerned but rather only an attempt to make bar owners more responsible for "policing their own establishments". "I don't anticipate or at least I hope we'll never have to suspend anyone's license" Bell said, "but if we have to take that action we need the ordinance in place to back us up. "We don't plan to station an officer at every bar or club; in fact we don't plan to change our bar patrols much at all" Bell said, "We'll still respond to calls for assis- be the case. Mark Stemler, owner of The Club felt the proposed ordinance put too much stress on the bar owner and added more support from the police was needed particularly particular-ly in keeping known problem customers out of the clubs. Frank Bell felt that it is not the Department's responsibility responsi-bility to evict people from liquor-selling establishments and that the ordinance addresses that type of situation. Bell agreed with Stemler as far as taking a "hard line" with not allowing allow-ing certain individuals, who have been nuisances, to again drink in the bar. The Chief emphasized that the ordinance stresses owner responsibility and in his opinion that is where control should lie. Councilman Tom Shellenberger added that because the ordinance is stricter, the Police Department Depart-ment will have clearer guidelines for enforcement. The City Council took the input under advisement and City Attorney Tom Clyde will make some more revisions to the ordinance before its scheduled adoption Thursday Thurs-day evening, July 15. |
