PANAMA CITY — The City Commission is set to debate Tuesday morning whether to prohibit liquor sales after 2 a.m. in March.
On one side is Mayor Greg Brudnicki, who believes Panama City should comply with Panama City Beach and Bay County during Spring Break.
“I would hate to know we indirectly encouraged people to come over to our bars,” Brudnicki said. “We want to avoid anything that would cause people to get hurt.”
On the other side is Commissioner Mike Nichols, who represents St. Andrews. Nichols said it would be imprudent to punish law-abiding Panama City businesses when the problem exists on the other side of Hathaway Bridge. He added that drunken driving should not increase because spring breakers use buses and other transport and are just as likely to return to their hotel.
“We don’t have a problem in Panama City,” Nichols said.
City Attorney Nevin Zimmerman is recommending that the city adopt an ordinance setting the city’s normal alcohol sales at 4 a.m. If the city wants to do the one-month prohibition in keeping with Panama City Beach and Bay County, the city could adopt a second ordinance.
If the commission chooses to do nothing, the city’s current ordinance on alcohol sales gives precedence to Bay County’s ordinance.
Panama City bars are caught in the middle. The Oasis Lounge on 15th Street stays open until 4 a.m. and has a connected liquor store. Package employee Rachel Newby, and daughter of owner David Newby, said the bar will accept a 2 a.m. deadline without hesitation, although it would prefer to stay open until 4.
“He’s a little bummed out by it, but if that’s what he has to do, he’ll do it,” Rachel Newby said of her father.
She believes some spring breakers will travel into the city.
“I can see some of them doing it. Definitely, some of them would try to come across the bridge into town.”
Whatever the commission decides will require two votes, at the second meeting in February the last Tuesday of the month, Feb. 24.
In other business at Tuesday’s meeting at 8 a.m. at City Hall, the commission will discuss a final draft of the memorandum of understanding for the Marina project.
Zimmerman believes both developers — Great South and HomeFed — will have agreed to the memorandum of understanding by Tuesday’s meeting, and the commission will approve the draft. The developers then would have until June 1 to present master plans for a commission decision.