Debate on bar hours, alcohol sales in B.R. just getting started

Alcohol sales will continue to be a subject of debate among Metro Council members in the coming weeks, before they vote on one proposal to allow bars to open on Sundays and stores to sell alcohol before 11 a.m. on the same day. The council also plans to take up a different but related proposal that would allow bars to remain open until 4 a.m. three nights a week. On Wednesday night, Councilman Ulysses “Bones” Addison’s proposal to allow bars to stay open till 4 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday was introduced. It is now set to go to the Finance and Executive Committee next week, then to be aired at a public hearing and voted on at the following week’s regular council meeting. Meanwhile, Addison was one of six council members who voted against amending Councilwoman Alison Gary’s measure to restrict bars from opening before 11 a.m. Sunday. The measure, as it was introduced in public hearing, would allow bars to open at 6 a.m. and retailers to begin selling alcohol at 6 a.m. Gary had proposed amending her own measure to appease those who objected to repealing the city-parish’s so-called blue laws restricting Sunday alcohol sales. The council, after discussing a number of variations of Gary’s original measure, eventually voted to defer a vote on it for another two weeks. Councilman Mike Walker—who is two-term incumbent Mayor Kip Holden’s main challenger in the mayoral race—voted against both deferring and amending Gary’s measure. The last tweak to the blue laws was in October 2007, when the council approved the sale of liquor and wine on Sunday, and OK’d alcohol sales to begin at 11 a.m. instead of 12:30 p.m. Addison opposed the 2007 measure. —Adam Pearson