City Provides Updates At Second Alcohol Ordinance Meeting
Thursday, September 12th, 2024
The City of Dalton hosted a second information meeting on Wednesday to update business owners and residents about proposed changes to the City’s alcoholic beverage ordinance. The meeting detailed several changes to the proposed ordinance that were made after feedback from members of Dalton’s business community at the first meeting that was held on August 26th.
Mayor Annalee Sams opened Wednesday's meeting by telling business owners that the alcohol ordinance will not be on the agenda for next Monday’s meeting of the Mayor and Council. However, she said that City leaders and staff expect the second reading of the ordinance to be on the agenda for either the October 7th or October 21st meetings, at which time the Council could vote on the ordinance. A first reading of the ordinance was held at the August 5th meeting.
The proposed ordinance provides more freedom for pouring license holders to obtain a license to sell distilled spirits, which the City’s current code only allows for bona fide restaurants deriving at least 50 percent of their sales from food sales.
“You had to be a restaurant to be able to sell distilled spirits, but under the proposed code you no longer have to be that,” said City Administrator Andrew Parker. “There are some requirements that you can’t sell on Sunday, because the (state) brunch bill does require you to be a bona fide eating establishment to sell on Sunday.”
The latest revision of the ordinance would require pouring alcohol outlets in Dalton to close at 2:00 am, which is consistent with requirements in Georgia law. OCGA Section 3-3-7 sets forth the criteria for closing times based on community population, which the City of Dalton now views as recommendations because state law also provides for local councils to vote to go beyond those times.
Two major changes that have been made to the proposed ordinance in the past two weeks removed requirements for alcohol license holders to install camera systems at points of public entry to the business and to install ID scanners which would ensure ID cards presented for the purchase of alcoholic beverages are genuine. At the August meeting, several business owners told City leaders that these requirements would be too costly without appreciably improving security. With those changes, City leaders told owners of liquor stores that the new proposed ordinance would not change the rules for their businesses at all. The only changes affect license holders for pouring establishments.
Another revision to the proposed ordinance reduced the requirement for license holders to have all staff members who handle alcohol to receive alcohol handlers training from the state. Instead, the latest revision would only require that one person on duty at a pouring alcohol outlet have the training certificate.
Requirements for on site security were also changed in the latest revision. The latest version of the proposed ordinance clarifies that security guards would only be required after 10:00 pm, not during all operating hours. After 10:00, pouring alcohol outlets would be required to have a minimum of one security guard on duty, and at least two for every one hundred patrons on the premises.
City leaders and staff are still working to finalize the proposed ordinance with consideration of additional feedback that was provided at Thursday’s meeting.
