HAMMOND — The Hammond City Council is expected to discuss two alcohol related ordinances that could ban anyone under 21 from entering a bar and from consuming alcohol at public parks at their June 24th meeting.
The first would ban anyone under 21 years of age from entering a bar, where the primary purpose is serving alcohol. It would exempt businesses where food is the main focus, such as restaurant-bar hybrids, that serve alcohol but operate primarily as restaurants.
The second ordinance would ban alcohol consumption in all of Hammond’s public parks, potentially impacting popular downtown events like Hot August Stroll and Starry Saturday.
Both ordinances were proposed by Council President Kip Andrews. During the council’s June 10 meeting, Andrews, who is also a high school teacher, said the proposals were inspired after he heard multiple teenage students talking about getting into local bars after paying cover charges.
“A lot of people have their own view on how they feel about certain things, and I respect that,” Andrews said. “But being an educator, sitting in my classroom, hearing these kids telling me they’re getting into these spots, and God forbid if somebody leaves and gets killed, then I would feel bad about it knowing that we didn’t try to put something in place to prevent that from happening.”
Andrews didn’t name the bar or establishment where the underage students were allegedly getting access to.
The ordinance to ban alcohol at public parks was originally on the agenda for the June 10 meeting, but it was tabled and is expected to be heard again at the June 24 meeting.
Targeted Campaign
Some bar owners in the area believe the proposed ordinances are targeting their businesses. Patrick Billings, owner of The Brown Door, allows people under 21 to enter his bar.
Billings said that who enters is given a wristband – one color for people over 21 and a different color for people under 21. While they are not allowed to drink, he said they still pay cover charges, buy non-alcoholic beverages, and contribute to the bar’s revenue. Without their business, especially in a college town like Hammond, he says bars like his could take a financial hit.
“Our bar is a club, a social place to go. You come in and there are TVs to watch the game, plus it’s a dance club. They come in here to dance and relax and meet their friends,” Billings said.
As a bar owner who’s spent a lot of time around college crowds, Billings said students like to go out in groups. If some of their friends won’t be allowed in Hammond bars, Billings said he’s afraid they’ll go elsewhere, like Baton Rouge or New Orleans, which will take money away from the Hammond tax base and he believes could put some students in danger.
“They’re just going to go somewhere else. They’re going to travel outside Hammond to do that stuff, so it’s going to impact the restaurants. They’re going to lose revenue. The college itself is going to lose kids because there’s no social life for them here,” Billings said. “It’s also going to impact the city itself. It might not be directly this month or next month, it’s going to to be a trickle for months and years to come.”
Over at The Red White and Brew, owner Todd Delaune doesn’t allow anyone under 21 to enter his bar, but he said he still vehemently opposes the measure.
“There are laws on the books already that tell us how to behave if we’re a bar. And if we don’t abide by those rules, then we risk getting our license revoked and our business shut down,” Delaune said. “The fact of the matter is, if we write laws just to write laws, and we don’t enforce the ones already on the books, then it’s just a worthless piece of paper.”
Some believe underage drinking is still an issue
Hammond resident Elyssa Schexsnayder is a former bartender in Hammond. While she says she opposes the ordinance because of its potential detrimental effect on businesses in the area, she still believes there needs to be a larger conversation about underage drinking culture.
Schexsnayder, 33, said she started working at a Hammond bar when she was 19 and claims she had been drinking in Hammond bars as young as 17 while attending Southeastern Louisiana State University.
Ultimately, Schexsnayder said it’s difficult to police underage drinking when many of the bartenders and security staff are the same age, or a few years older, that those attempting to drink illegally.
“We definitely have a problem. They’re slapping wristbands on their friends saying they’re 21, and they’re buying drinks for each other and passing them around,” Schexsnayder said. “Instead of fighting this ordinance, invest in staffing your bar in a way that keeps it from happening.”
Schexsnayder, who has been sober for more than five years, admits that going out and drinking underage was ultimately her own choice. Still, she believes that if there had been more adult supervision, especially from bar owners and staff, she might not have struggled with substance abuse for nearly a decade.
“When I got sober, I started to accomplish so much. I went to trade school. I got my welding certificate. I’m a project manager now, and I started my own business. Those are all things I couldn’t have done while I was drinking. I don’t think people realize how much potential they have until they’re able to step away from that drinking culture and go, ‘Oh my God, I’m a super intelligent, capable, and organized person. But not with booze,'” Schexsnayder said.
UWK reached out to Council President Kip Andrews about the proposed ordinances, but our messages were not returned at the time of publication.
The meeting is scheduled for June 24 at Hammond City Hall and is set to begin at 5:30 p.m.
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