Cookeville Accepting Committee Applications For Alcohol At Events

Cookeville currently taking applications for a committee to sort through the details of potentially allowing alcohol sales at events on city property.

City Council passed a new ordinance outlawing the events earlier this month. Cookeville City Council Member Chad Gilbert said those events became unmanageable. He said he hopes to see this committee efficiently formulate and scrub ideas about how those events can happen tenably in the future.

“How fortunate are we that we have a forum, not only in this county but in our community, that people can come and have an opportunity to express their ideas, their thoughts on subjects, their questions,” Gilbert said. “Forming a committee is just another way to take it to a level that it’s more organized.”

Gilbert said the city’s legal counsel and department heads will be available to help the council work through ideas. He said those interested can apply on the city of Cookeville website through January 31, and the council hopes to announce the members in mid-February.

“We’d like to see what some of their past experiences are in similar committees and services, and we think on balance, you can get a mix of folks together that can formulate ideas, talk about them, debate them, and then bring them to us and we can go from there,” Gilbert said.

The committee will be made up of five community members and two city staffers. Gilbert said he believes that some business owners would be a good mix for the committee. Gilbert said the city’s legal counsel felt that the new ordinance was necessary to prevent the city from being exposed to legal risks during these events, but a new ordinance based on the ideas cultivated by this committee is not out of the question.

“I don’t think anyone on the council has anything specific, we just were excited to see what they bring forward and how it can work within the bounds of our ordinance.,” Gilbert said.

The ordinance passed in January came with some opposition from residents who shared their thoughts during public comments. Gilbert said anytime people have questions or strong desires, it is healthy to have those concerns discussed through the formal process of a committee.