PANAMA CITY — At Oasis Liquors in Panama City, business can be slow at the bar until 2 a.m., bartender Cassandra Steele said.
“It could be dead from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m., and at 2, we have a house full of people,” she said. “General Dynamics has a night shift that gets off at 2 or 3. Their business here during that last hour is amazing.”
That bar is among the many that are not on Panama City Beach but may be forced to close at 2 a.m. in the month of March as Panama City Beach officials try to tone down the Spring Break celebration.
In fact, bars and liquor stores throughout much of Bay County could be forced to close early during Spring Break as the result of a chain-reaction of county and city ordinances.
“I have huge problem with that,” Steele said.
It started Sept. 25, when the Panama City Beach City Council, as one of 16 measures to tone down Spring Break, voted to halt the sale of alcohol in March at 2 a.m. instead of the current 4 a.m. time.
Bay County has an ordinance that states its regulations for the unincorporated areas must mirror the bar and liquor store closing times of Panama City Beach. Panama City, Lynn Haven and Springfield have ordinances stating that bar and liquor store closing hours must match Bay County’s.
Parker and Mexico Beach already ban liquor sales after 2 a.m. Callaway allows bars and liquor stores to stay open until 4 a.m. and its ordinance does not mandate its alcohol sales rules match Bay County’s.
County Commissioner Mike Thomas said he plans to bring up the subject at Tuesday’s County Commission meeting.
“This is different than what we’ve ever run into before,” Thomas said.
Thomas said the County Commission also has the option of changing its ordinance so the early closing times only go into effect in the unincorporated areas of the beach, not all of Bay County. He said not having consistent closing times for bars and liquor stores on the entire beach could create an enforcement nightmare.
“Several years ago when we were doing our comprehensive plan, we set up a beaches special treatment zone,” Thomas said. “It allows rules to be different out there from bridge to bridge.”
‘Make or break’
Ms. Newby’s Liquors, one of the establishments in the unincorporated areas of Panama City Beach, presented Panama City Beach Council members a petition with thousands of signatures in opposition to scaling back the closing times.
“Your decision can make or break us,” the petition addressed to the Panama City Beach City Council and Bay County Commission states.
The petition urges the council not to scale back the closing time.
“This action would significantly affect revenue and cause layoffs due to loss of income,” the petition states. “As well, we consider this ordinance to be discriminatory because it singles out only those businesses west of the Hathaway Bridge.”
Jim Musicaro, the general manager of Ms. Newby’s Liquors, said hard-working people in the service industry are going to be hurt financially by the early closing hours. At that business, an entire shift would have to eliminated if the business had to close at 2 a.m., he said.
“How many people will be put out of work? And it’s not going to solve the problem,” he said. “What (Panama City Beach Council members) need, instead of giving themselves a raise, is to hire another police officer and get another police car.”
Musicaro said law enforcement should set up DUI checkpoints and speed traps on roads coming down to Panama City Beach from Birmingham, Ala., or Atlanta.
“Those are the people who are causing the problems, the drivers who come down with no place to stay,” he said.
Mayor Gayle Oberst said Ms. Newby’s petition has more signatures than any petition she has seen as mayor. Oberst pointed out that the Panama City Beach Council’s decision does not impact the closing times at that establishment, as it is in unincorporated Bay County.
“What we have done only affects the bars that are in the city, and I don’t know what the county’s decision is going to be,” she said.
Oberst said she understands how the earlier closing hours might hurt some of the waitresses and bartenders.
“Those people work hard and they make a lot of money during Spring Break that helps them last through July and June when money is big again, and I’m concerned,” she said. “I’ve said several times, I don’t know that we can get college-age kids to go to their resort at 2 o’clock. If they do, the resort is going to have to have better and more security, because they can have a cooler in their room and continue to drink, so I’m concerned that the balcony falls, the partying, will continue in the resorts, and they may not be able to handle it. We’ll have to see how it goes.”
Councilman John Reichard said he thinks the world of the people at Ms. Newby’s, and it was not an easy vote to scale back the closing hours.
“We are trying this at the recommendation of law enforcement, the sheriff of Bay County and the police chief of Panama City Beach,” he said. “That is why we went forward.”
He said the city will evaluate how well the new laws are working. “It is a one-time trial only,” he said.
Panama City Mayor Greg Brudnicki said now that Panama City Beach has changed the closing time to 2 a.m., it only makes sense the city follow suit — even if the city didn’t have an ordinance requiring its bar hours to match the county’s. He said if the bars stay open until 4 a.m. in Panama City, impaired spring breakers may drive over the Hathaway Bridge to continue their partying at bars in the city.
“We have to be consistent” in the hours, he said. “Otherwise, we’re going to have some serious problems.”
Springfield Mayor Ralph Hammond said he has no problem with scaling back the bar closing times during March.
“You don’t need to be out drinking past 2 in the morning,” he said.