In a 5-3 vote at this month’s regular council meeting, the Milton city council approved adding an ordinance waiver option to the special event applications. Event organizers can select an request option in order to waive an open container ordinance, noise ordinance, animal direct ordinance, or any other ordinance for their requested event. The request provision would then either be approved or denied by a council vote.
Council member Jimmy Messick reiterated the vote does not affect the city’s current ordinances.
“This is a motion to put the request onto the application for an event or special activity,” Messick said. “It is not a vote to waive any ordinance or change any ordinance whatsoever.”
In addition to requesting a ordinance waiver, the application also requests the event organizer to specify the location of the requested waiver including a time frame. Applications for the request must be submitted to the city 60 days prior to the scheduled event.
Council member Patsy Lunsford, who voted against placing the option on the application along with fellow council members Lloyd Hinote and R.L. Lewis, shared her concerns of having alcohol available in the downtown area for such events.
The city currently has an ordinance in place restricting open containers, or alcoholic beverages, on city property.
“We have an ordinance in place,” Lunsford said. “I don’t think it should have to be brought to us every time somebody signs this form that in 60 days they want to have a drinking party. I don’t think that is necessary. I think we need enforcement on the ordinance that is in place. Everybody that I have talked to wants it to stay a family-oriented place where there is not liquor poured down their back or on their shoulder, where they have to come home and change clothes to come back to enjoy Bands on the Blackwater.”
Messick addressed Lunsford’s concerns by stating regardless of the vote’s outcome, an event organizer would at some point approach the council and request a ordinance waiver for a particular event.
“Somebody is going to do it and we are going to be faced with the requirement to vote aye or nay,” he said.
Glen Hill, the manager of Blackwater Bistro, also addressed Lunsford’s concerns.
“As a business person down there, as a residence down there, we don’t want a drunk fest out there either at all,” Hill responded to Lunsford. “We don’t want a police officer to have to come down there, because every time a police officer flips on his lights everything devalues right there. So this actually gives you more control and it makes the event guaranteed to be a better event.”
Hill voiced his appreciation for the provision.
“I appreciate how this is written,” Hill said. “This says that applicants will be required to submit their request at least 60 days, which is even more important because the council can make a more educated decision,” Hill said. “This gives you more control over that kind of thing. This protects the city and the council by liability.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Milton: Council approves open container waiver