 |
|
|
|
|
| 1/15/2009 6:00:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Cortez hopes to cork public drunks
City considers methods to reduce intoxication
Steve Grazier
Journal Staff Writer
City officials are considering options to put a cork in liquor sales at stores selling to intoxicated customers and "habitual drunkards."
During a 40-minute discussion Tuesday evening, the Cortez City Council debated a handful of topics to help control the city's public drunkenness problem along municipal streets, within city parks and around local businesses.
"Liquor stores and bars need to know we're coming," said City Attorney Mike Green. "If we don't do something, we're going to overburden the jail. We're already giving out more jail than we ever have before."
Some ideas broached by the city were:
n Give stores a "watch list" of people who continually are arrested and convicted of petty crimes resulting from heavy drinking.
n Pass a liquor-code amendment that would let officials identify an individual as a drunkard and that would explain to liquor stores why the person was identified as a drunkard.
n Encourage family members to define a relative as a "habitual drunkard," and to visit local liquor stores requesting managers and clerks not to sell to that person.
Another option, randomly moving around public benches that act as hang-outs for drunkards, did not gain much momentum during the discussion.
The city did agree to draft and hand-deliver letters - via the Cortez Police Department - to people who operate local alcohol-selling establishments to remind them who they can legally serve.
The letters will detail a store's obligation to refuse sales to people who are obviously drunk or are habitual heavy drinkers. Letters will invite store owners and managers to suggest ways to help remedy the ongoing problem.
"I think the stores know who's the problem," Green said. "I think some stores may want (a liquor-code amendment) as a reason not to sell."
Colorado law prohibits police from incarcerating people who are only drunk in public and not committing another crime. Therefore, the city is looking at options to lessen the amount of public drunkenness.
City Councilor Betty Swank questioned whether the city will "create more crime" if it passes new laws to identify habitual drunks and determine who can purchase alcohol.
"If these people are alcoholics, they will try to get liquor some way, maybe even stealing it," Swank said. "Are we creating more of a problem?"
Green suggested the need for action.
"I think there's some accountability here, and we need a communitywide solution," he said. "They're (the intoxicated people are) becoming belligerent with people in public."
Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane said the traditional drinking contingent - mostly homeless Ute Mountain Ute members - is declining but now includes more Navajos from Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, as well as many meth users who are white.
"A lot of our old-timers are fading out, and new people are coming up to shop," Lane said. "When good people come here to shop, the drunks tend to follow."
Typical city hangouts for drunkards include City Market, Denny's and Wal-Mart, Lane said.
The city is on tap for further discussion on the public-drunkenness issue, according to City Manager Jay Harrington.
"It's something that's going to be in front of us for a while," he said.
Reach Steve Grazier at steveg@cortezjournal.com.
|
Reader Comments
Posted: Friday, January 16, 2009
Article comment by:
Rachel Laner
I would just like to say that I do support stricter laws on selling alcohol beverages, however, saying someone is a "drunkard" and describing them that way to anyone is, in my mind, a form of discrimination!!! I dont support the selling of these beverages to anyone who appears to be intoxicated, I do however respect that person's rights to purchase it, even if they have been know to drink heavily in the past. Being discriminatory is not something that we as a society pride ourselves on, yet we are so eager to enforce it when it comes to certain subjects.
Posted: Thursday, January 15, 2009
Article comment by:
christopher navage
kudos to the city council for at least attempting to address this issue which plagues many cities. my family and I are directly affected by drinking on public and private property in our neighborhood, and have grown tired and disgusted with calling the cortez police about habitual offenders. the underlying principle which should be governing any official action should be, in my opinion, is that those of us who cannot abide by the simplest of society's rules should not be allowed to continue to adversely affect the society. whether that means incarceration, rehabilitation, or other measures should be carefully considered, implemented, and if need be, adjusted. we all deserve to live in a safe place and we all have to obey the same laws, or we are outside of the law and therefore society.
Posted: Thursday, January 15, 2009
Article comment by:
michael hatch
now we all know to whom that term is addressed to,and for that only reason is to get the ute indians out of cortez . now lets get this fact straight the ute casino on the ute mount.ute res. is the main factor for cortez not going under in southwest colorado so before the ppl. of cortez ,or the city council start pointing fingers , they should take a good look around cortez before they start running people out of out of town ,this is the 2000's not the 1800's this council the city is taking steps backward in time.
|
Article Comment Submission Form
|
|
|
|
|
