Park alcohol rules approved

The alcohol consumption policy applies to four Music in the Park concerts scheduled for next summer

by CHRIS BURRITT

OAK RIDGE – After toughening proposed rules, Oak Ridge Town Council approved a policy to allow consumption of beer and wine at four Music in the Park concerts next summer.

The policy requires that vendors of alcoholic beverages provide town staff with verification of their state alcohol sales permits. It also requires that Oak Ridge hire at least one off-duty sheriff’s deputy to enforce park regulations and “specifically to watch for unruly behavior” and people attempting to take beer and wine away from the amphitheater area designated for drinking.

“You can’t get a beverage and go fishing,” Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (P&RAB) co-chair John Browning told the council during its meeting July 7. “You have to stay within the designated area.”

The council voted unanimously to adopt the policy recommended by the board after adding the requirement that vendors must dispense beer and wine in easily identifiable cups.

Councilman Spencer Sullivan recommended the additional precaution to help deputies identify drinkers. While the board didn’t discuss that requirement, Browning said, “we could implement that.”

The policy also mandates that people who want to drink must provide government-verified identification that they’re 21 years or older. Vendors will issue wrist bands identifying people who can buy and consume alcohol.

“Attendees shall be limited to purchase two drinks per visit from a vendor,” the policy states.

“We really didn’t get into how many times you can go back,” Browning said. “Our hope is that the vendor will recognize if a person has been up there 10 times and has trouble getting to and fro.”

Browning added that “it would be illegal” for concert goers to bring beer and wine to the events since alcohol isn’t allowed in Town Park, except for four concerts next summer.

During public comments, Oak Ridge resident Andy Michels asked whether the town would be legally liable if a concert goer who drank was later involved in a traffic accident. Council members and town staff didn’t answer his question.

Consumption of alcohol will be allowed during four of the six monthly ...continued on p. 5

A front-page article in our July 7-20 issue failed to report that Piedmont Triad Airport Authority (PTAA) has approached property owners Chris and Fenna Corry about buying their property in an area targeted for aviation-related economic development.

PTAA officials have met with the couple numerous times, according to Kevin Baker, the authority’s executive director.

While PTAA hasn’t made an offer for the couple’s 5.1 acres west of Old Oak Ridge Road, it has offered “to move ahead with the process, and even considered beginning the appraisal process in 2014,” Baker wrote in an email July 8. “But to date, they have declined to move forward.”

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