WI: Alcohol Concerns Main Focus of Public Health and Safety Committee
By Liz Holbrook
August 20, 2018
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — At this month’s meeting of the Wausau Public Health and Safety Committee the two main items discussed had to do with the sale and use of alcohol.
The first item was to potentially grant a waiver to the Wausau River District for the return of the Exibitour event. Exibitour was once a popular downtown Wausau event before it ended in 2012. The event was discontinued in 2012 due to legal issues with state alcohol waiver laws. Lisa Rasmussen, the chairman of the Public Health and Safety Committee explained why the event was no longer held. “But the state law was written such that wine walks and the waiver that we had to give to allow them to carry that wine out in the public right of way, it wasn’t legal for us to give that waiver.”
The event was still occasionally held without the waiver, but participants had to finish their wine either in the businesses or dump out the wine moving from place to place. This past legislative session, the state of Wisconsin changed the law to allow more flexibility with this type of waiver. Rasmussen explains it as “They’ve created an enabling legislation that allows for wine walks and makes it legal for us to give the waiver.”
The return of Exhibitour is a good thing for downtown Wausau, especially with the revised legislation. Rasmussen says, “… the state law also changed the rules so that the businesses participating as art galleries can open for commerce. That was another sticking point with the original Exhibitour is that the way the law was in the old days was that those galleries hosting the art and the wine had to be closed and they couldn’t sell anything.”
Rasmussen also believes it’s a good event for tourism and getting people to return to downtown Wausau. With the granted waiver, Exibitour will return on Friday, October 3rd to Wausau.
The other item of discussion involved Wausau’s Applebee’s asking for changes to their premise description. Rasmussen explains the request as, “Applebee’s has asked to include in their licensed area their ‘Car Side to Go’ parking stalls. Which really enables them to sell alcohol through the window of a car that pulls in to pick up food.”
The committee voiced several concerns about this request. The biggest concern is the idea of having alcohol being given directly to someone driving a car. Rasmussen comments that “They’re not real excited about amending that premise to include a mixture of packaged alcohol and cars because obviously, you’re handing it directly to the driver. And the idea of cars and alcohol trying to keep some distance between one another. Sending a sealed container through a car window to someone who drives off is a terrible visual.”
No representative from Applebee’s was present at the meeting to explain the restaurants thought process behind the request. Rasmussen says though that the committee has an idea of maybe why Applebee’s would make this request. “We believe that it’s a test market that they’re running in Wisconsin to see which communities might be amenable. But the committee was not real excited to open up that premises.”
The request has been tabled until next month’s meeting to allow Applebee’s to have a representative come in and explain their reasoning. The committee’s next meeting will be on Monday, September 17th.