Dalton permits Sunday alcohol sales later than allowed by state law

Published 2:15 pm Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Dalton’s alcohol pouring law is out of compliance with state law, according to City Administrator Andrew Parker.

The city allows bars to serve alcohol until 3 a.m. The City Council has asked the Public Safety Commission to study rolling back those hours because of crimes and nuisance issues near some bars that take place after midnight.

Parker told Public Safety Commission members on Tuesday that city officials have discovered that Georgia law allows alcohol sales until 2:55 a.m. on Sundays only in counties with a population of at least 800,000. In counties the size of Whitfield County, state law allows alcohol sales on Sunday mornings only until 2.

“We are out of compliance on Sunday,” Parker said.

The Public Safety Commission oversees the police department and fire department and also holds hearings on violations of the city’s alcoholic beverage laws.

Parker said whatever recommendations the Public Safety Commission makes the city will have to make its law comply with state law.

On July 17, the City Council removed the first reading of an ordinance that would roll back serving hours for alcoholic beverages from the agenda for that night’s council meeting and assigned the ordinance to the Public Safety Commission to review and make recommendations.

At a meeting of the city’s Finance Committee earlier in the month, Parker said the police department is seeing an uptick in the number of calls related to the city’s bars. The Finance Committee is composed of members of the City Council.

“It’s usually after midnight,” said Parker.

“Right now, our alcohol ordinance allows patrons to be served alcohol until 3 a.m., which seems to be well in excess of our peers,” he said. “We believe people have been coming here from Chattanooga and Rome and other places after their bars close and causing problems. They’ve all been from out of town. I don’t think there has been one local person.”

“A lot of it is nuisance stuff,” he said. “People tossing away beer bottles or urinating in public. But we’ve certainly had serious offenses, aggravated assault, sexual battery, homicide, DUIs.”

Parker said city officials are “doing all due diligence” to make sure members of the Public Safety Commission and the City Council have all the information they need to make a decision on the issue.

• Fire Chief Todd Pangle briefed the commission members on a project that could be funded from a proposed 2024 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), moving Fire Station 2 south from its current location at 2024 Abutment Road.

Pangle said moving the station could help the city improve its rating from the Insurance Services Office (ISO). ISO ratings of local fire departments are used by some insurance companies in part to determine homeowners’ insurance rates.

“It is technically in District 1, so we don’t get full credit for the station,” he said. “We don’t get full credit for having the training center (located at the station).”

Pangle said because the station and the training center are located together the ISO doesn’t give full credit for the training center. He said moving the station further south would get it out of Fire Station 1’s district, open up coverage on the south end of the city and allow the city to get more credit for the training center.

ISO rates fire departments on a 1 to 10 scale. The lower the number, the better the rating. Dalton currently has a 2 rating. Pangle said he believes the proposed changes could get the city to 1.