Milton Council Starts Happily, then Gets to Work

publication date: Jan 14, 2008

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author/source: Jonathan Copsey / STAFF

New Milton Councilmembers Alan Tart (top), Burt Hewitt (middle) and Julie Zahner Bailey (bottom) were sworn in last week as their families look on.

The first Milton City Council meeting of 2008 began with a festive and happy tone, then the members got down to business.

The night began with the induction of new council members Alan Tart and Burt Hewitt and the re-elected Julie Zahner Bailey. All three took their oaths of office with their families by their sides.

Mayor Joe Lockwood read a proclamation thanking Eddie and Sabrina Moore for their contribution of funds to the Milton Police Department for training a police dog. Then the dog, DeSilva, put on a demonstration, sniffing out hidden narcotics.

The warm and fuzzy atmosphere ended when the Council got down to actual legislating.

The very first item was a request for an alcoholic beverage license by The Union Restaurant on Providence Road. City staff recommended approval, as all legal requirements had been met.

But a dozen members of Providence Baptist Church, which is near the restaurant, came to oppose the application, and Pastor Gary Martin gave an impassioned plea against the license.

“I would like to think as people of the community we have a voice, a voice other than whether or not we voted for you or whether or not we will vote for you next time,” Martin said. “I would like to think that the concerns of the community [will be heard].”

Long-time resident Linda Martin said, “This pouring license has been requested within a short distance of a church and within a short distance of a school…Do you want your children on the road with someone who has stopped and maybe had a drink or two?”

According to city staff, the restaurant is half a mile from an elementary school and 1200 feet from the church — well above the legal distance requirements.

Zahner Bailey made a motion to defer the item in order to address the church members’ concerns, and council member Tina D’Aversa seconded. A point of contention was whether or not the applicant had followed all regulations. The public notice of the application was apparently nailed to the business, which made the notice farther away from the curb than legally required. 

  
City Manager Chris Lagerbloom shot down the attempt of deferral. “The only additional information you would have two weeks from now that you don’t have tonight is that we could tell you that the sign was within 10 feet of the road,” he said.

Tart made the first comments of his first term to try and explain the council’s thinking in approving the license. “I have heard what you’re saying, but I also know what the ordinance says,” Tart said. “If we were to deny this because the citizens don’t want this to go forward, we could be putting ourselves in a legal predicament and we would have to use tax dollars to fight that legal predicament, and we would lose.”

In the final vote, only D’Aversa was opposed.