Reconsider allowing of alcohol on city properties
April 7, 2010 by Susan Lewis

I read the article pertaining to the Novi City Council allowing alcohol consumption at the Civic Center and the Library and am so sorely disappointed in their final vote on this issue.

Council members Bob Gatt and Kathy Crawford seem to be listening to the people by way of their vote, representing the community in lieu of finding ways of generating income at the expense of moral and ethical decisions.

To say that this policy is not intended to be a revenue generator is complete bunk. The Civic Center has been booking their rooms for a long time for many events such as showers, birthday parties, meetings, etc. Why the need now to include serving alcohol? Let's be real, it's to book more rooms and make a bigger profit to benefit the city thus taking away from the existing businesses in our community. What I don't understand is why with so many restaurants and halls in the area, let alone in our own city that have the means to handle events where alcohol is served, why would the city take away their business? Shouldn't the city be promoting those businesses rather than take away from them to make a profit for themselves?

And after the $10.135 million dollars in construction costs of our tax dollars being spent on a brand new library, do we really need to allow alcohol there? Let alone that books, carpet, furniture have the potential of being ruined why can't there be city buildings where alcohol just isn't served? I know our society is alcohol obsessed but there should be safe places where alcohol shouldn't be served such as our City Hall and our Library.

And as stated in the article, there would a 2 drink limit per person. With this policy, as Mr. Gatt stated, it would be hard to enforce. I would go as far as saying impossible to enforce. Do we really want our police to be waiting outside the Civic Center or Library to check for impaired people who may have gone over their "2 drink" limit, instead of being out at the area bars and out on the our streets protecting our community? I don't.

Let's hope that nothing bad happens from passing this policy, but I ask the City Council members to reconsider this policy after the six month trial period. Consider what it is we want our city to stand for. It's integrity depends on it.