Cookeville Alcohol Committee Nearing Ordinance

With a few tweaks, a Cookeville committee will present its ordinance on alcohol consumption in city streets to the city council for a first reading.

Committee Member and Seven Senses Food and Cheer Owner Jay Albrecht said a public hearing Monday night brought the committee valuable feedback. He said many residents feel events with alcohol enhance their quality of life, while others object completely. He said as currently written, the ordinance outlines 12 requirements for receiving a permit from the city and 14 more regulations for the event. He said as of now, hosting these events will be a privilege limited to nonprofit 501-c3 organizations.

“We wanted to make sure that we didn’t, within the bounds of our ability with public ordinance such as this, that we made sure that organizations were going to have to follow a certain set of rules and that it was equal for everyone,” Albrecht said.

He said the committee is dedicated to crafting an ordinance that will meet in the middle, providing requirements that create a space for the events to be safe and productive for all parties. He said the committee will spend some time tweaking the ordinance based on feedback from the first public hearing, but he hopes to have it submitted to the council quickly.

“Not everyone is in favor of having events that involve the consumption of alcohol, and we certainly all understand that and respect that,” Albrecht said. “The real impetus that we had was making sure that any event that did involve the alcohol was going to be held to a high standard.”

Albrecht said state law limits liquor and wine sales to nonprofits, so this ordinance cleans up the city’s existing regulations. He said he also wants to ensure that these rules are equal for everyone.

“It just cleans everything up a little bit from a state law standpoint and from a legitimacy standpoint to make sure that anybody that’s issued a permit such as this is really going through the right channels for the right reasons,” Albrecht said.

He said once issued a permit, a nonprofit can partner with a business to put on an event. He said that business would not be “on the line,” as the nonprofit hosting the event will be held responsible for ensuring its event follows the ordinance guidelines.

“The people who hold these events on a regular basis aren’t necessarily completely happy with what we’re proposing because it does restrict them in some ways that they don’t want to be restricted,” Albrecht said. “And the people who don’t want these events to happen aren’t necessarily happy with it, but they, at least, appreciate the controls that we are putting in place.”

Albrecht said he hopes to nail down revisions soon and have the first of two readings on the city council agenda.