City passes ordinance to sell alcohol in public parks

GREEN BAY – During its Oct. 15 meeting, the Green Bay City Council approved the second reading of an ordinance that will allow the city staff to sell alcohol or fermented malt beverages in the city’s public parks.

“So, as some of you may have heard, there's going to be a Draft in Green Bay, and that's kind of what kicked off this conversation initially,”  Green Bay Assistant Parks Director James Andersen during the September Parks Committee meeting.

“I mean, we've had conversations about alcohol or fermented malt beverages.. with different things, and different communities do this quite often. But, in terms of why we kind of kicked off this conversation, it started with some of the Draft discussions and some of the activities or events that we're looking to do during the Draft and so this would allow essentially any city official, staff person to sell alcohol.

“Our state has where you can sell if you're a staff member. But, actually we need authorization from council to be able to do that. So, that's what this ordinance does. This allows us to sell within public parks.”

During that parks meeting where the matter was presented, Andersen said that the parks department had an interest in doing a trial run in one of the parks.

“Well, we're looking to maybe try out before the Draft even, maybe find an event or maybe it's a concert in the park that we test out this and kind of work out some of the kinks prior to the Draft,” he said.

“But essentially, we could set up anywhere. So whether that's sitting, you know, at one of our shelters currently or it's maybe setting up a tent or bringing in something that we could then sell out of.

“Maybe it's just a pop-up tent where we could have some beer sales or fermented malt beverages — sales in the park as part of that event — or maybe it's a concert one of the nights out at Bay Beach where we could have a grassroots band out there and just have some options available for people and make some revenue.

“We're kicking this off, primarily for the Draft.”

The ordinance passed its first reading at the September City Council meeting and was unanimously approved during its second reading on Oct. 15.

The ordinance maintains that “The City of Green Bay and its officials and employees are permitted to sell fermented malt beverages in City parks. No person who is not an official of or employed by the city is permitted to sell fermented malt beverages in parks without a license or

permit as outlined in Chapter 4 of the Green Bay Municipal Code.”