"Our hope is that by some remote miracle, what you are about to read is outdated. Sadly, we doubt that'll be the case.
On New Year's Eve - a Sunday this year - more than 200 Lexington restaurants and bars will have no choice but to throw a wet blanket on things a full hour before the big ball drops in Times Square as much of the rest of the state and nation raises a traditional champagne toast to the arrival of 2007. Ouch. Many of our restaurants count on profits from New Year's to make it through the otherwise slow month of January.
There are many reasons Lexington will once again chase away its hospitality dollars on New Year's Eve. Foremost among them is our own vote, in a referendum 20 years ago, to restrict sales of "wine and spirits" to the hours of 1 p.m.-11 p.m. on Sundays.
Hindsight will do us no good now, but evidently nobody thought or cared that once in a while New Year's Eve, an event traditionally celebrated at midnight, would fall on Sunday.
It's a lawyer's long story, but to cut to the chase, there seems little the Urban County Council can do about this situation before Dec. 31. The reason for that is a state law that established for merged governments such as ours a referendum process to decide liquor sales issues. Under this statute, the will of the people cannot be superceded by an act of the Urban County Council. Were it the maverick sort, our council could act in the short-term. But, frankly, there doesn't appear to be much political will to do that.
Voices for the industry were raised before council in early December, but by then, it was far too late to take action in time for the coming holiday. The issue has been placed on the council agenda, but council doesn't meet again until January.
This eleventh hour uproar is nothing new. It happened six years ago, the last time that New Year's fell on a Sunday, when there was a brief round of complaint from some establishments that stood to suffer. But other than howl, no sustained, coordinated action was taken to patch this self-inflicted leakage of dollars to other nearby markets.
As one whose parents were in the business, I know about the demands made on one's time and energies. I know there isn't much of either left for attending meetings to organize a campaign. But according to industry insiders, this is not surprising. The Fayette County chapter of the Kentucky Restaurant Association is among the organization's least active. So perhaps that needs to be addressed.
We're not pointing fingers here. But it seems that if the local restaurant industry genuinely feels strongly that something must be done to prevent this loss of profits at a time of year when many in the business can least afford to lose, it should consider putting on a full-court legislative press as soon as possible and see it all the way through to the desired outcome.
In the process, another state law should be considered. (KRS 243.050) extends Sunday sales of wine and spirits to 2:30 a.m. at airports, convention centers and racetracks. So, the celebration carries on at the convention-licensed hotels even as surrounding independent competitors hear pins drop in the dismal gloom of New Year's Eve, 2006.
Times are changing and we have brought that on by welcoming the World Equestrian Games. We will receive people from all over the planet in just a few short years. If we honestly want to greet them as a city worthy of hosting the world, the limitation on alcohol sales on Sundays and its obvious impediment to a more entertainment savvy Lexington should be modified and in a timely fashion.
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