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Council votes to allow bars open longer

Jill Schramm/MDN A Minot bar is lit up Monday night. Minot bars will be able to decide whether to stay open until 2 a.m. under an ordinance change approved by the Minot City Council Monday.

Minot bars will be able to decide whether to stay open until 2 a.m.

The Minot City Council voted 4-3 to allow bars to remain open the extra hour after hearing from a few establishment operators. The bar hour provision was attached to an ordinance change allowing Thanksgiving on-sale alcohol, which the council passed two weeks ago on first reading. The council voted on the amendments on second reading to give final passage Monday.

Council member Josh Wolsky proposed pushing back the closing of alcohol establishments from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. as allowed by state law.

“This is one of those areas where I would rather not see Minot any more restrictive of commerce than the state of North Dakota, so I simply want to put us in line with the state and what is becoming a more common closing time in the larger cities in North Dakota,” he said.

Jon Lakoduk with The Tap Room and Saul’s said some of his customers have requested a 2 a.m. closing because they live nontraditional lives. People such as nurses, servicemen and servicewomen and restaurant industry workers don’t always work hours that fit with a 1 a.m. bar closing, he said.

“When they get their closing duties done, they don’t even have time to maybe unwind and relax, decompress a little bit before they go home,” he said. “I think we need to talk about the people that have the nontraditional lives – where they’re not getting off until midnight or 11 o’clock at night.

“I would support the freedom of the business owner to decide whether they want to be open until 2 a.m. If they don’t want to be open until 2 a.m., they sure don’t have to be,” added Lakoduk, who noted he closes his business at 11 p.m. Monday through Wednesday if there’s no customers.

Sherri McGlaughlin with The Spot said she would like the option to be open. She said she might choose not to open beyond 1 a.m. on a regular basis but would like the option when hosting pool tournaments.

“It causes people not to come here and stay in hotel rooms,” she said of the 1 a.m. bar closing.

McGlaughlin also said limiting the closing time doesn’t address over-consumption.

“You aren’t stopping people, necessarily, from drinking. You stop them from drinking at my bar, which we cut people off or monitor what they’re drinking,” she said.

Jason Huus with Broadway Liquor, said he would feel it necessary to open his bar until 2 a.m. if permitted by city ordinance.

“Personally, I don’t want to. But if everybody else is going to do it, we’ll do it,” he said. “That adds seven more hours to our lives, which are also nontraditional. Whatever happens, happens, but that’s what changes our lives.”

Cindy Sessions of Minot asked the council to give the matter more consideration. She cited the work the city is doing to fight addiction and address negative consequences of alcohol use and said extended bar hours run counter to those efforts.

Police Chief Jason Olson presented information regarding peak hours for police calls. Currently the 1 a.m. hour is among the busier hours and there’s a drop-off in activity continuing into the early morning hours. Olson said staffing of patrol shifts was set up to accommodate that activity, and adjustments might be necessary with the change in bar hours.

Voting for the 2 a.m. closing were Wolsky, Paul Pitner, Shaun Sipma and Shannon Straight. Opposed were Lisa Olson, Stephan Podrygula and Mark Jantzer.

“Different people want different things, and it’s hard to know what the majority is and where we should be on it,” Jantzer said.

“This is just an opportunity for us to get out of the way of businesses. Let them make the decision,” Pitner said.

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