NC: Sen. Wells looks to give alcoholic beverage commission more power
By Jordan Hensley
May 25, 2018
HICKORY— Since April 2017, five people have died and five more were injured in shootings outside three of Hickory’s bars.
Each episode occurred shortly before or after the bar’s 2 a.m. closing time.
N.C. Sen. Andy Wells, who has lived in Hickory for almost 50 years, took action last summer and asked the NC Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission what could be done to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.
“How do we keep the bad actors out of the alcohol business?” Wells said.
First, there was the April 7, 2017, shooting outside J. McCroskey’s Irish Pub and Grill, where three young adults perished and one was injured. Then in June 2017, a man died due to gunshot wounds sustained outside Alessio’s Lounge and Grill.
And with another shooting incident occurring on April 8, 2018, outside The Vault Bar and Lounge, which left one man dead and three others injured, it is clear to Wells this problem isn’t going away.
“Some businesses just don’t work in some locations,” Wells said, referring to the location of The Vault in downtown Hickory. The business surrendered its ABC license on April 9.
This is the fourth business at 247 First Ave. NW in the last five years to cancel or surrender its ABC permit to the commission, according to the North Carolina ABC commission website.
Currently, Senate Bill 714, if made into a law, would give the commission ability to impose conditions on the operating hours as a penalty for a violation.
Wells said he and several others have been working closely with the commission to review the commission’s rules and regulations to see what could be revised and added.
“When North Carolina raised the drinking age from 18 to 21, the legal age to own a bar remained 19,” Wells said. The state raised the drinking age to 21 in 1986.
The bill reads a person must be at least 25 years old to own a business seeking to sell alcoholic beverages.
Other regulations, like the fine amounts, haven’t been updated since 1982.
Wells said the exact amounts haven’t been finalized, but they’re working on making sure inflation is factored in.
While there’s still some minor changes to be made, Wells said the bill is out of the committee stage and ready to be voted on this session.