Liquor issue splits Janesville City Council
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JANESVILLE — Three of the six members of the Janesville City Council apparently oppose an ordinance that would allow liquor stores in the city to sell alcoholic beverages two hours earlier in the day.
A new state law allows stores to sell alcoholic beverages starting at 6 a.m. The city's ordinance forbids beer sales before 8 a.m.
The city's Alcohol License Advisory Committee has recommended the city change its ordinance to parallel the state law.
State law previously had allowed stores to sell alcohol from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The city ordinance restricts sales of beer and other malt beverages but does not address other alcoholic beverages.
The council voted 3-2 on Monday to change a proposed ordinance so all alcoholic beverages could be sold only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.
The council's vote does little except change the ordinance proposal that is up for debate at a public hearing Feb. 13. The council could amend the proposal after the hearing, before it makes its final decision.
Voting to restrict all alcohol sales to the hours of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. were Deb Dongarra-Adams, Sam Liebert and Yuri Rashkin. Opposed were Tom McDonald and Kathy Voskuil. Russ Steeber was absent. The council has only six members since the recent resignation of George Brunner.
"I have serious doubts this law does anything to help Janesville," Rashkin said of the new state statute. "Moving alcohol sales from 8 a.m. to 6 a.m. does little to help anyone."
State law allows municipalities to impose more restrictive hours than the state has.
The existing city ordinance states that restricting the hours of alcohol sales is "for the betterment of the community," that it contributes to "health, welfare, peace, safety and tranquility" and will reduce alcohol consumption by underaged residents.
"Wisconsin has this cult of excessive binge drinking," Liebert said at Monday's meeting.
Youths who drink are more likely to drink and drive, to be arrested and to get lower grades in school, he added.
Liebert also noted a competitive consideration, as the neighboring cities of Edgerton and Milton already have decided to allow 6 a.m. liquor sales.
Rashkin said that Janesville Police Chief David Moore had no recommendation about what hours are best but did recommend the council set a standard.
Dongarra-Adams, McDonald and Voskuil did not comment on the issue during the meeting.
Not addressed at the meeting was the possible desire of hunters, anglers, tourists or party planners who might want to buy alcohol early, perhaps before heading out on a trip.
The manager of the liquor store at Logli, 1501 Creston Park Drive, asked the city in December to change the ordinance to parallel the new state law.
Other business
The Janesville City Council on Monday:
-- Unanimously approved a change in the zoning ordinance so trucks can make or take deliveries at the former Gilman/Thyssen Krupp plant, 305 W. Delavan Drive, from the Jerome Avenue side of the building. ANGI Energy Systems of Milton is moving to the building and promises an increase in employment. The council voted to restrict truck traffic on Jerome to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., overriding the plan commission, which had recommended 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. ANGI asked for more flexibility. Houses line one side of the street, and residents registered concerns about safety for their vehicles and children and the potential for trucks to damage the avenue. Trucks will not be allowed to park or idle on Jerome.
-- Approved a run/walk fundraiser by Habitat for Humanity of Rock Jefferson Counties on Saturday, May 19, using the city bike trail and streets, starting at Home Depot, 3200 Deerfield Drive.
-- Approved a settlement for $12,000 with Randy DeGarmo, who was injured in an auto accident with a city snowplow on Dec. 13, 2009.
Jan 25, 2012 at 7:22 p.m.
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I would definitely by alcohol on my way to work, instead of waiting until after work. This would be awesome! I'm all for it, besides school buses are painted bright yellow, so I'll see them easy enough! I hastily thank the City council.
Jan 25, 2012 at 5:25 p.m.
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omg...are there really that many people who need beer that early or late? did someone complain?
Jan 25, 2012 at 4:32 p.m.
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"Conclusions: Restricting availability of alcohol is an effective measure to prevent alcohol-attributable harm."
Then we need to restrict Packer Games because domestic violence goes up when the Packers lose......
Jan 25, 2012 at 3:55 p.m.
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Conclusions: Restricting availability of information is an effective measure to prevent knowledge-attributable harm
Conclusions: Restricting availability of guns is an effective measure to prevent gun-attributable harm
Conclusions: Restricting availability of religion is an effective measure to prevent religious-attributable harm
Conclusions: Restricting availability of speech is an effective measure to prevent opinionated-attributable harm
Conclusions: Restricting availability of money is an effective measure to prevent monetary-attributable harm
Conclusions: Restricting availability of freedom is an effective measure to prevent?????
I think you get the hint.
Jan 25, 2012 at 3:37 p.m.
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What a great job our highly intelligent local government representatives have done. They know what's best for us. We are so lucky to live in the land of Oz. The Great Oz's will tell us how to do everything. It's time to reel back the long arm of our government, instead these bozos want to show us how government can make your life so much better, because they are all knowing.
Jan 25, 2012 at 2:47 p.m.
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There is no reason local ordinance should not mirror State law. What about third shift workers or people heading out on a camping trip who want to combine early morning shopping trips? This should not even be an issue with our City Council -- the State already wasted enough time on this one.
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It's pure prejudice to classify people as "problem drunks" for reasons like this. Please vote for Ron Paul and others like him at the local level who want this governmental micro-management BS to stop.
Jan 25, 2012 at 2:08 p.m.
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justoneof....Have you ever heard of 3rd shift workers? What if John Doe gets off work at his 3rd shift job around 6am and wants to stop and grab some beer? Why is it any different than me getting off work at 5pm and stopping to buy beer? PLEASE USE YOUR HEADS PEOPLE.
Jan 25, 2012 at 1:43 p.m.
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OH yes of course we do not have enough drunk drivers now..BY the way let's raise a single beer that costs as much as a pkg of cig .Why booze kills more than cig do ...You can get away from a cig but try to get away from a drunk diver. I wanna see this one.
Jan 25, 2012 at 1:35 p.m.
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but why do you need to be able to buy a case of beer at 6 am?
Jan 25, 2012 at 12:42 p.m.
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maybe the city should spend a couple million dollars on a consultant to find out what this 2 hours cuold do? And lets milk this out till 2015 with several meetings and luncheons discussing it.
Jan 25, 2012 at 9:48 a.m.
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Please just follow the state law and stop wasting your time. Let them sell at 6am and let's move on to something important.
Jan 25, 2012 at 9:42 a.m.
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I'm not convinced that alcohol sales would necessarily increase.
The people that buy alcohol now will still buy it, but just at a different, more convenient time.
Do you really think that a two hour earlier opening time will result in new drinkers?
Highly unlikely.
Jan 25, 2012 at 9:11 a.m.
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When are they going to enact a dog walking schedule for us?
Jan 25, 2012 at 8:23 a.m.
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I see three council members believe we are all kids and they know whats best for us. This was a simple passage in most communities but not here. Crazy.
Jan 25, 2012 at 2:25 a.m.
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JohnDoe, are you saying that opening the liquor stores two hours early does NOT increase sales of alcohol? If it doesn't, why did the liquor lobby make the state change the law? (I say "make" because apparently that's how law is "made" these days -- it magically appears out of Fitzwalkerstan.)
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Clearly the WHO article is a compilation of numerous studies across the globe and bears much more weight than your glib dismissal. More availability = more drinking = more binge drinking and drunk driving. You can't reduce the negative effects of alcohol by expanding how much it's available.
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The fact is that Wisconsin has a serious drinking problem, one of the worst in the country. This isn't opinion. This is statistics.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/30565984.ht...
Jan 24, 2012 at 9:55 p.m.
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factsplease...please correct me if I misinterpreted your link...but, the way I read it is that the crux of the problem is extended hours at the CLOSING end...NOT the opening hours.
Thus, your argument lacks merit.
Jan 24, 2012 at 7:22 p.m.
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Conclusions: Restricting availability of alcohol is an effective measure to prevent alcohol-attributable harm.
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http://alcalc.oxfordjournals.org/content...
Jan 24, 2012 at 7:22 p.m.
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"Not addressed at the meeting was the possible desire of hunters, anglers, tourists or party planners who might want to buy alcohol early, perhaps before heading out on a trip."
Is that somebody's opinion? We're now reporting on things that didn't happen at the council meeting?
The corm on my big toe throbs at 8 AM every morning and the only thing that soothes it is an alcohol rub for five minutes. THAT wasn't addressed at the council meeting either.
Jan 24, 2012 at 6:47 p.m.
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The existing city ordinance states that restricting the hours of alcohol sales is "for the betterment of the community," that it contributes to "health, welfare, peace, safety and tranquility" and will reduce alcohol consumption by underaged residents.
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So we no longer want "health, welfare, peace, safety and tranquility" and the reduction of alcohol consumption by underaged residents?
Jan 24, 2012 at 6:10 p.m.
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How does allowing liquor sales two hours earlier decrease binge drinking? Is there data showing that more youths would be driving drunk if liquor was sold two hours earlier, even though they can't buy it? Where is the logic coming from here? Unless someone can show me real data, Janesville should follow the state law, and allow liquor sales to start at 6AM.
Why is this so difficult? Why is it necessary for the council to decide what's right and wrong for it's citizens?
Jan 24, 2012 at 5:58 p.m.
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WHY can't you guys get the polls correct. You have an OR question.
Open at 6 who cares.
How do you get results from a vote when one is missing and one "resigned".
3-2/ 1 missing and one resigned.
One person said WI already has alcohol issues. Sorry but 2 more hours open in the AM is not going to solve or make things worse. Also we cannot buy products in the grocery store like the rest of the counties around here. JVL has to go outsie then back into the store. STUPID.
Is that supposed to deter us- no we still are shopping and will go next door even though the city trys to make it a pain in the U know what.
Jan 24, 2012 at 4:33 p.m.
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Wow. I agree with Rashkin and Liebert on something? Who'da thunk it? Thanks, gentlemen.
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