Tuesday’s meeting of the Piedmont City Council was largely dominated by a heated debate concerning whether to allow alcohol sales at downtown events.
This comes in response to a proposal from the meeting a week ago by Nathan Pope, owner of Pope’s Furniture.
Speaking on the behalf of local business owners, who want to attract more people to downtown events, Pope had requested approval for the addition of a beer garden at various events and festivals held throughout the year.
“It would be completely separate, and would be set up like a wedding tent,” said Pope during that meeting. He went on to explain, “There will be minimal points of entry and some sort of barricades, so you can’t come and go at any point,” adding, “You wouldn’t be able to walk through town with a beer in your hand.”
At the time this was seen as a compromise, following the rejection of previous attempts by local event organizers to allow public alcohol sales and consumption.
Council Member Doug Dickeson said, “All I asked was that we find some sort of compromise, because there are some people who call and say they don’t want this kind of thing.”
Fast-forward one week and there was no compromise to be found. After a heated debate, Council Member Ben Keller put forward a motion to allow the proposed events, but with one caveat-no alcohol sales allowed. “We can do things without alcohol,” Keller argued. The vote that followed was split, 4-4.
Dickeson had stated that he wouldn’t vote to allow public alcohol sales as long as preachers were prohibited from preaching on public sidewalks. This led to yet another heated argument surrounding an apparent incident concerning a preacher who was allegedly harassing the customers of local businesses.
Council Member Matt Rogers briefly made a motion that seemed, for a moment, to find common ground; it would allow beer sales inside a tent, with absolutely no Sunday sales, and only during a 4-hour window. After some discussion, Rogers rescinded his motion.
Then attempting to alleviate concerns expressed over the apparent ban on street preaching, Rogers made another motion, this time to amend the street preaching ordinance. The amendment would allow open air preaching, in certain areas and without the use of megaphones or any sort of amplifiers.
However, after it was determined that no one actually knew exactly what the current ordinance said, several council members agreed that it would be probably be a good idea to find out before making any changes. Rogers then rescinded this motion as well.
The council expects to take up the matter again at the next council meeting.
In other business, bills for payment were approved in the amount of $352,684.05.
The next regular Piedmont City Council Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, January 1st, immediately following the work session, which is set for 5:30pm.