(MARYVILLE, Mo.) Those under 21 years of age in Maryville could be looking for other social hangouts.
The city is considering raising the age limit to enter bars from 19-years-old, to 21.
Many bar owners are on board with the idea.
"Bar owners are really just kind of tired of having all of the liability cast upon ourselves to take care of this age group that isn't even of the legal drinking age," says Paul Thompson, owner of The Palms Bar and Grill in Maryville.
Places like The Palms say they're serious about not serving minors.
When those minors are allowed inside, it takes work keeping things under control.
"On a busy weekend, a football weekend, I can have up to six bouncers running around, basically checking on minors, making sure they're not drinking if they are in here. Basically babysitting them, policing them," Thompson says.
Palms says aside from the frustration, the extra help hurts the bottom line.
It would change its own rules, but doesn't want to lose business to others.
"If there's three or four of them that are 21, and one or two of their friends aren't 21, they come down the street. They walk in, and we'd say 'You three can come in, but the other two, you can't. So what they're going to do is go down the street, next door, or whatever," says Thompson.
The difficulty policing underage people brought one citizen to raise concerns to Maryville City Council.
Council is interested.
"We really wanted to just sit back and take a look, and try to gather information and start the discussion through the community to determine if it's something City Council wants to see through," says Greg McDanel, Maryville City Manager.
Now Council is gathering information from groups with Northwest Missouri State, Public Safety, citizens, and bar owners.
It's taking everything into consideration.
"If we raise the limits to 21, are we increasing drinking at house parties and other things in the community," says McDanel.
Council hopes to make a decision that works best for everyone.
Maryville City council's information gathering period will last through sometime in June.
Based upon the findings, there may be revisions to the city ordinance in July.
The city is considering raising the age limit to enter bars from 19-years-old, to 21.
Many bar owners are on board with the idea.
"Bar owners are really just kind of tired of having all of the liability cast upon ourselves to take care of this age group that isn't even of the legal drinking age," says Paul Thompson, owner of The Palms Bar and Grill in Maryville.
Places like The Palms say they're serious about not serving minors.
When those minors are allowed inside, it takes work keeping things under control.
"On a busy weekend, a football weekend, I can have up to six bouncers running around, basically checking on minors, making sure they're not drinking if they are in here. Basically babysitting them, policing them," Thompson says.
Palms says aside from the frustration, the extra help hurts the bottom line.
It would change its own rules, but doesn't want to lose business to others.
"If there's three or four of them that are 21, and one or two of their friends aren't 21, they come down the street. They walk in, and we'd say 'You three can come in, but the other two, you can't. So what they're going to do is go down the street, next door, or whatever," says Thompson.
The difficulty policing underage people brought one citizen to raise concerns to Maryville City Council.
Council is interested.
"We really wanted to just sit back and take a look, and try to gather information and start the discussion through the community to determine if it's something City Council wants to see through," says Greg McDanel, Maryville City Manager.
Now Council is gathering information from groups with Northwest Missouri State, Public Safety, citizens, and bar owners.
It's taking everything into consideration.
"If we raise the limits to 21, are we increasing drinking at house parties and other things in the community," says McDanel.
Council hopes to make a decision that works best for everyone.
Maryville City council's information gathering period will last through sometime in June.
Based upon the findings, there may be revisions to the city ordinance in July.
Comments
In my opinion, here's the perfect solution: Every time a cop busts a human for underage drinking, or illegal sales, the humans kill ten cops. Then the cops would figure out it's not a good idea to pull stunts like that, and they start turning in their badges. Legislators would prefer to lose then percent of their highway grants rather than lose one hundred percent of their cops, so they would repeal the blatantly unjust law. Voters who don't want their police exterminated would learn their lesson, too, and they would never pull a lever like that again.
Tom A.
January 5, 2013 at 9:57 am
