Liquor
laws broken every day at city golf course
By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Anyone who wants to see state and local laws
being broken only has to go to the local golf course on any summer weekend.
In fact, state and local liquor laws are being broken almost every
day of the week as city officials continue to ignore golfers who bring
their
own beer for
drinking while they're playing golf.
Members of the city council have discussed the matter several times during
the past year and have decided, at least for the present time, to ignore
it.
"It's a problem that every public golf course has that doesn't have the
sale of liquor (on site)," said City Manager Eric Honeyfield, who added
that he expects the city council to take up the matter again when discussions
resume about the possibility of leasing the course.
But Alex Alvarez, the manager of the pro shop at the golf course, says that
a refusal to address the situation continues to put him in the middle of
a debate
that he has no desire to be in.
Should he ignore the laws, as it seems city government officials want him
to, he risks the possibility that someone will get so drunk at the course
that
he could cause harm to himself or others. And if that happens, will he be
the convenient
scapegoat?
Or should he try and enforce drinking laws at the course, knowing that by
doing so he will alienate a lot of the course's most frequent users and risk
that
they will stop coming to the Gallup course altogether and give their business
to Grants,
where the course sells liquor to golfers?
"We're already seeing a decline in customers because people are confused
about the status of the golf course and whether it is still open or being run
by the city," he said.
People see the headlines in the local paper about the city planning to lease
the course and then assume something has been done because they don't read
the entire article, he said.
Others look at the newspaper and see the hundreds of thousands of dollars
the city is spending on the parks and for artwork around the city and nary
a dime
for the golf course, he said.
And they begin to wonder just how much does the city care about the golf
course or keeping it up? he added.
As a result, Gallup loses customers to Grants and Farmington.
This is a problem, Alvarez said, that has been around every since he became
the golf pro back in the early '80s.
At that time, city officials allowed the seven major golf tournaments to
serve liquor and turned their back on drinking by golfers at other times.
When Frank Colaianni, himself a liquor dealer, came into office, Alvarez
said he asked him what he should do about the situation, pointing out that
providing
liquor at the course without a permit was illegal.
Colaianni decided to ban sale of beer at the tournaments but suggested, said
Alvarez, that he turn a blind eye to people bringing in their own beer in
coolers as long as they didn't abuse the privilege.
From 1983 to 1991, the tournaments were prohibited from selling or providing
beer to the golfers.
Then George Galanis came in and David Ruiz was appointed city manager. He
again wondered what the city policy would be toward drinking beer at the
golf course.
He found out soon.
Shortly after Galanis was elected, representatives of the Elks Club came
and asked if they could serve beer at their tournament and Ruiz said he didn't
see a problem so he gave permission.
That opened up the gates. As soon as the other tournament directors saw the
city allow it for the Elks tournament, they also wanted to be allowed and
the days
of really open and illegal drinking at the course began again.
The beer was flowing so freely that a few years later, Ruiz suggested to
Alvarez that it may be time for the city to get a license and start selling
beer every
day.
But Alvarez urged the city to reconsider, pointing out that during the summer
a lot of young kids work at the course and in the pro shop.
He also pointed out that by openly selling beer, the city would put itself
in a serious liability problem if someone began drinking and passed out in
one of
the canyons around the golf course.
"I asked whether it was worth the liability to the city just to make a profit
of about $10,000 a year," he said.
Apparently it wasn't because the matter was dropped until last summer when
the whole debate began again when current members of the course learned that
some
of the tournaments each summer were continuing to provide beer illegally
to people who signed up.
Not a good idea, said the council, and directed Honeyfield to talk to tournament
directors about the need to arrange for a city permit if they planned to
distribute beer.
So far this summer, only one tournament, the Linda Madrid Memorial run by
Pal Joey's, has applied and received approval.
In some ways the current arrangement seems to work.
People who bring coolers with beer inside are allowed to get away with it
as long as they are discreet.
"I've seen a few cases where people have brought in hard liquor and I've
said to them, 'Oh, come on. You've gone over the line.'"
He said there has also been three or four cases over the past two decades
where golfers have gotten so drunk that he had to drive them home. In these
cases,
the offenders have been told to shape up in the future or lose their golfing
privileges.
Honeyfield said he realizes all of the pros and cons of this argument but
for right now the council would rather wait and address it if and when the
city
can get some golf management firm interested in taking over the operation
of the
course.
There's also talk, he said, about coming up with an alternative road into
the course off of Boardman "for safety reasons."
Councilor Pat Butler said he agreed that the council should wait before addressing
the liquor issue at the course since the current situation seems to be working
all right.
"As long as it is done in moderation and under some supervision, I don't
see a problem with it," he said.
He is, however, a strong supporter of getting an alternative road to the
course off of Boardman and is willing to use some of the bond moneys recently
approved
by the voters and by the council, to accomplish this.
He said that this will not only alleviate some of the traffic that goes through
the residential areas around the course, providing them some relief, but
it will also make it a lot easier for visitors in town to find the course. |
Friday
July 2, 2004
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