DeQuincy City Council approves more lenient alcohol ordinance
Last Modified: Wednesday, June 13, 2012 10:34 AM
By Taylor Prejean / American Press
DEQUINCY — City Council members on Monday approved a new ordinance making the city’s alcohol sales regulations more lenient.
Before council members voted, one DeQuincy resident expressed concern about the change. Jerry Gilland said his main concern is that there is a restaurant — Comeaux’s Cajun Gold — near DeQuincy Primary School.
The ordinance was revised after representatives of Comeaux’s approached the council seeking permission to serve beer and wine with meals.
“I appreciate the fact that there is a restaurant in town, but it’s not a supper club,” Gilland said. “The owners knew what the ordinance was before they opened up.”
Keith Comeaux, a Comeaux’s Cajun Gold owner, said they didn’t know about the ordinance until they applied to the city for their license.
“I understand that there is a school so close, but in a small town like this you only have so much commercial property,” Comeaux said. “It’s all on that main road.”
After discussing Gilland’s concerns, council member Denise Maddox said the ordinance can always be changed if it creates a problem.
Other members said they had received little negative feedback about the new ordinance, and voted unanimously to adopt the measure.
The original ordinance, adopted in the 1940s, prohibits the sale of alcoholic drinks with more than 3.2 percent alcohol content by volume to be sold within 300 feet of a school.
The new ordinance would decrease the distance to 200 feet and increase the limit to 6 percent. Stipulations were added to the ordinance to prevent businesses from abusing it.
For instance, alcohol can only be sold along with food, and at least 80 percent of the restaurant’s revenue must come from food sales. Businesses must maintain separate records for alcoholic beverage sales.
Maddox, who helped write the new ordinance, said the revisions bring DeQuincy’s alcohol sales regulations more in line with state law and that of other area municipalities.
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