PANAMA CITY BEACH — Spring Break is set to take the spotlight at yet another public meeting this week as the Panama City Beach Council prepares to discuss the issues Thursday night.
The discussion comes after local residents and business owners flooded Tuesday’s Bay County Tourist Development Council (TDC) meeting to speak out against Spring Break, which received unflattering national attention on a Fox News special last week.
City Manager Mario Gisbert said that while the city has made improvements in controlling Spring Break over the years, there still are things that need to be addressed.
“We still need to do more,” Gisbert said. “We need to address the issues before they even hit the beach.”
TDC Chairman Buddy Wilkes said Tuesday both county and city law enforcement have been tasked with creating proposals outlining ways to gain better control of Spring Break.
In a letter to Gisbert, Sheriff Frank McKeithen outlined several initiatives that would take effect only during the six-week college Spring Break period, including outlawing alcohol on the beaches, cutting off alcohol service at 2 a.m. or earlier at beach businesses and aggressively enforcing capacity limits.
If enacted, Gisbert said banning alcohol on the beaches alone would have a drastic impact on Spring Break.
“That’s a hard line,” he said. “I find it hard to pull the trigger as hard as the sheriff has.”
One option Gisbert said the city is looking into is requiring businesses to better regulate crowds at big events on the beach, require attendees to provide identification and be checked for drug and alcohol paraphernalia.
“If an upland owner is creating a crowd … we want that (business owner) to have control over that entire event,” Gisbert said, referring to businesses with beach access. “I don’t know how to skin that cat yet.”
Gisbert said he will present those suggestions, McKeithen’s letter and other information gathered from local residents and business owners to the council for discussion tonight.
Over the years, Gisbert said the destination has seen an increase in what officials call “100 milers,” or criminals that come to prey on the Spring Break crowds.
“As the popularity of Spring Break increases, it increases to the bad side of Spring Break at the same rate,” he said. “When you have more good kids, you have more bad kids that follow them.”
Gisbert said he was surprised to see the Fox News report only focus on that bad side.
“There’s 200,000 people here; what percentage of those people are the ones doing those activities that were shown on Fox News?” he said. “We don’t want to stop the good activities. We want to see how we can nurture the good activities and stop the bad activities. That would be the ideal thing to do.”
Want to go?
- What: Panama City Beach Council meeting
- When: 6 p.m. Thursday
- Where: PCB City Hall, 110 S. Arnold Road (State 79)
