For the second time in the past month, the Chattanooga Beer Board had to put the proceedings on hold during the meeting. In order to approve or deny a beer permit, inspections must be made, approved and documented by the city’s building and fire inspectors, the health department if the business prepares and sells food, and by the city’s zoning office. There must be verification that the business is located in a zone that allows alcohol sales. Before each beer board meeting, each of these agencies signs off that all the requirements have been fulfilled or states the things that need to be corrected. The hold-up during the last two meetings has been because the Zoning official with the Chattanooga Land Development Office has failed to confirm if alcohol sales are allowed in the zone where businesses are located.
The first hour of the meeting Thursday morning, Assistant City Attorney Kathryn McDonald and Beer Inspector Sgt. Jason Wood spent attempting to get in touch with representatives from the city and the mayor’s office to help get the information that was needed, while the applicants waited.
“It’s hard to do our job when the zoning office is not doing theirs,” said Vince Butler, vice chairman of the board. He added that the people at the meeting applying for beer licenses pay taxes and are there because they have an event or a business that they want to open this weekend. He said, "We know that they are short-staffed, however, this is their job and these issues need to be resolved." Board Member Dan Mayfield said he was inclined to by-pass the zoning inspection and go forward with hearing the applications and making a decision. “What are they going to do, fire us?” he said of the board that is made up of all volunteers.
Eventually after stopping the meeting two times Dallas Rucker, Director of the Land Development Office, showed up at the meeting to answer zoning questions, which allowed the meeting to continue.
The Creative Discovery Museum was approved for a temporary beer permit for “AmuseUm 1023” the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Children’s Museum located at 321 Chestnut St. It will be held on Saturday, March 4, from 6-9 p.m. The event will have three bars, all located inside the building and will be manned with certified security agents. This is the 25th year for the event.
The Mayor’s Mansion Inn, 801 Vine St., has been owned and operated by Joseph and Joy Reinert for the past five years. Nothing except the name has changed and the business had a beer permit under its last name. The applicant would have had to leave with no new permit and return in in two weeks to the next beer board meeting, if the zoning report had not been cleared up. Mr. Rucker confirmed that their C-2 zone does allow alcohol to be sold, and the business was given a new permit to match the new name.
Sgt. Woods updated the board on the on-going security issues with The Blue Light and its owner Brian Joyce. He said that Mr. Joyce has had meetings with officers during the last week about coming up with additional provisions for the whole of Station Street. Sgt. Woods has also given him a copy of a pending ordinance that he created for increased safety. Mr. Joyce has said he is also working with his security company for doing a written security plan.
The deadline for putting a security plan in place has come and gone, said the officer and that Mr. Joyce has been given the tools that he needs to complete it.Mr. Joyce also says he is willing to work with and share the plan with the nearby bars Westbound Honky-Tonk and Regans Place. There is one other company that is reluctant to work with him, said Officer Woods. He told the board that he believes that Mr. Joyce now is taking the security plan that must be done for Blue Light to stay open, seriously, but that ego is still involved. There have been no violations since the business was almost shut down.
There was discussion for the second time about Dallas’s Law, a new law requiring training and certification of security companies. There is a lot of confusion about it at the beer board, and with bar owners and some are not even aware it exists. The way to enforce it is still not known. But the beer board feels a responsibility to notify owners of the businesses that sell beer about the new law, and may hold an informative meeting for them.