“What happens this first time will tell us what to do next…what worked and what didn’t,”  Phyllis Fuller said after the Hastings City Council voted to allow beer and wine sales at the June 16 Thornapple Plaza entertainment event.

At the March 28 meeting, David Solmes, representing the Hastings Rotary and Kiwanis clubs, repeated a request denied last year by the council: allow the clubs to serve alcohol at the Plaza concession stand. The council didn’t say no, and asked for more information.

 

Fuller, from Kiwanis, listed the controls: beer and wine only, a two drink limit, wrist bands, two volunteers at five entry points to ID and give stamps, volunteers to make sure no one brings in something they shouldn’t or buys drinks for others and a specified area those who do not drink to separate them from those who do.

Council members argued the drinkers should have a specific area, not the non-drinkers. Fuller said they would be happy to change that, suggesting an area near the concession stand and central pathway for those with drinks, leaving the grassy area for non-drinkers with strollers, lawn chairs and blankets.

 

Councilman Don Smith said the sales would raise funds for entertainment acts, which are expensive. If people know the premium price of beer and wine, “kind of like at a ballgame,” would go to pay for shows, they wouldn’t mind the price. “The control measures are above and beyond,” he said. Several council members said to, “give it a try”

 

“We can come back after June with feedback from the community,” Fuller said, adding volunteers will get immediate feedback from the people there and council members were also likely to hear from people. Council members Smith, Brenda McNabb-Stange, David Tossava, Al Jarvis, John Resseguie and Therese Maupin-Moore voted to allow the sales; Bill Redman and Bill Cusack voted  “no.” Don Bowers was absent.