St Patrick's Day - limiting bar hours
The day of the St. Patrick's Day parade in Morristown is a festive occasion to be sure. But as the parade has grown in popularity, town officials are looking into whether the festivities should be toned down a bit.
The council plans a special meeting Tuesday night to consider limiting bar hours on the day of the parade, which this year is March 13. The proposal would ban bars from opening before noon. The custom in recent years has been for some bars to open as early as 8 a.m. on parade day with the inevitable result — groups of mostly young people inebriated before the parade even starts, which is noon. The drinking stretches out through the day and evening and the norm is for police to make a few dozen arrests for such things as fights, public intoxication and public urination.
Granted, these are not serious offenses, but the council is right to consider how prudent it is for bars to be going full throttle at, say, 9 a.m. Opening bars at noon offers plenty of time to drink. The more problems there are, the more the town pays in police overtime.
This is from the Daily Record. Thoughts???
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jonathan on
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I would be extremely disappointed if the bars were forced to limit their hours for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Morristown. The days of drinking at 8am are over for me but I remember how much fun it was in Morristown to let loose and go nuts (safely of course). Other than Thanksgiving Eve, it is one of the best days to get together with friends and enjoy the festivities. I feel limitation on bar hours will not solve the minor issues that may or may not arise because of alcohol consumption but rather prvent the bar establishments from maximizing their revenue. Let’s face it, people will just have house parties at 8am instead. Perhaps this could cause more alcohol related problems since people would have more readily available access to booze at house parties (since it is hard to order drinks at the overly packed bars) or see more people consuming alcohol on the streets – leading to more arrests.
Let’s not ruin a great day that is for the most part enjoyed by many responsible people. There will always be a few issues when 50,000 people get together whether alcohol is involved or not.
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