Council taking input on bar proposals
Meeting will be held at El Morro

By Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Now that he's offered his suggestions for ridding downtown Gallup of publicly intoxicated people, Mayor Bob Rosebrough plans to sit back and listen.

A public hearing on the suggestions is on the City Council's Tuesday evening agenda.

"I don't plan to dominate that discussion by advocating my suggestions one way or another," the mayor said.

And by the sounds of it, he plans on hearing an earful. Leaving behind its usual City Hall venue for its twice-a-month meetings, the council will head to El Morro Theater.

If the crowd is anything like the one that showed up the last time the city participated in a public forum on the issue, it will need the room. More than 70 people attended a forum on revitalizing downtown communities by abating nuisance properties hosted by the Gallup McKinley County Chamber of Commerce at the theater June 9.

Rosebrough introduced four options in a letter he handed out to the council during its last meeting June 14.

The first suggests approving a new city ordinance that would require any downtown liquor dealer to turn his business into a restaurant within five years.

The second suggests the city buy out the American Bar, the only remaining bar downtown, using its power of eminent domain and possibly converting it into a museum.

As a third option, he suggests approving an ordinance that would hold the dealers responsible for the costs the city now incurs for picking up and transporting people who leave their bars intoxicated.

Finally, he suggests enforcing an ordinance already in place but, until now, ignored that prohibits the sale of package liquor by downtown bars from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m.

"Without council action," his letter reads, "we can never expect to achieve a family-friendly, tourist-friendly downtown."

Rosebrough later said he'd prefer negotiating a solution with the downtown's liquor dealers, namely American Bar owner Joe Zecca, rather than resort to the law.

Zecca has declined to comment on the mayor's suggestions.

Whatever the feedback Tuesday, Rosebrough said he wants the council to take some kind of action on the issue during their next meeting July 12.

Sooner rather than later, he said, "we need to stop talking about it and find our way through it."

The council is also scheduled to take action on a proposal to ban smoking in public places, including work sites, sports events, and restaurants. Bars would be exempt from the ban.

Feedback during a public hearing on the proposal two weeks ago was mostly positive.

The ban was Councilwoman Mary Ann Armijo's idea, a way of protecting residents and visitors from second-hand smoke and of setting a good example for the youth.

Educators and health professionals praised the idea for its health benefits. One restaurant owner said the smoking ban would do her restaurant good because she could keep smokers out without fear of driving them to the competition since the ban would be enforced uniformly.

Not everyone is on board, though. Even some restaurant owners who aren't worried the ban would drive away business say it's none of the government's business telling business owners whether or not they can allow smoking. Pat Butler, the only council member to share his thoughts on the proposal besides Armijo at the hearing, agreed. Whether restaurants allow smoking, said Butler, a business owner himself should be left to market forces.

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at El Morro Theater.