City council revokes extra hour given to bars
June 19, 1991
If you were planning on taking advantage of the extra hour city council awarded the bars last spring, forget it.
If you’re planing on staying in the bars on Thursday nights later this summer, forget it.
DeKalb City Council voted 4-2 to revoke the extra bar hour on Thursday nights that they awarded liquor merchants earlier in the spring.
Second Ward Ald. Michael Welsh, 3rd Ward Ald. Gary Wiggins, 4th Ward Ald. Rita Tewksbury and 5th Ward Ald. Bessie Chronopoulos voted in favor of the ordinance that takes away the extra hour that bars can operate.
First Ward Ald. Amy Polzin and 6th Ward Ald. Jamie Pennington voted against the ordinance. Seventh Ward Ald. Jordan Kagan was not present at the meeting.
The new ordinance went into effect June 14.
Last spring, liquor merchants asked for the extra hour on Thursday nights to offset the increasing cost of liquor taxes and the banning of happy hour.
DeKalb Mayor Greg Sparrow had to break a 3-3 tie last spring because the third ward seat was vacant.
The new ordinance emerged as a result of a request from Welsh to reevaluate the necessity of the extra hour.
Council members also requested a report from the police department on the amount of activity to see if the extra hour made a difference.
The report from Sgt. James Kayes states that although activity increased 21 percent on Thursday nights/Friday mornings from 1990 to 1991, activity also increased 32 percent on Wednesday nights/Thursday mornings.
“This would indicate that, using these measures within this time frame, Friday morning activity has increased no more than the expected year-to-year variation,” the report states.
Wiggins said he felt because there were more incidents the extra hour “didn’t need to be passed in the first place.”
Polzin said the extra hour “was not the big hinderance that people were saying it was.”
“They didn’t give it enough time,” she said.
If the issue of an extra hour comes up again, Sammy Amayri, owner of McCabe’s, 323 E. Lincoln Hwy., said the liquor merchants will take the opportunity.
“No matter what we do, nothing’s going to be good enough,” he said.