City council votes down proposed alcohol ban

Bert Brantley didn't want to be there. The former president of the Bloomington chapter of the Lions Club was hoping that he wouldn't have to come this far to defend the territory his Lions helped build from the consumption of alcoholic beverages.\nBut Mick Renneisen, director of Bloomington Parks and Recreation, hoped to persuade the Bloomington City Council Wednesday that further research needed to be done before allowing the consumption of alcohol in the Lions Den Shelter in Upper Cascades Park.\nRenneisen won the duel.\nThe council voted 7-2 to table the motion brought forth by the Parks Department despite heavy opposition from the Lions, as well as other local social service organizations.\n"I had hoped that we wouldn't be at this place at this time," Brantley said. "I thought that the Lions Club and the effort we had put forth was sufficient to have convinced the Parks Board and the management of the Parks Department that this city was not interested in changing its standards of behavior over this issue."\nRenneisen requested more time to "do homework" on the issue, which would include consulting a national network of other park directors and extensive monitoring of the park, particularly after weekends. \n"We're going to watch our trash cans on Monday morning after the weekend," he said, "to get an estimate of how much alcohol, if any, is actually consumed in the shelter."\nLions Club members said they are concerned with the notion of alcohol being present in a facility that is located right behind a playground.\n"We hope very much that alcohol will not be permitted in this community in a public park, 45 feet from a children's playground," said Lions Club member David Little. "We feel it is ill-advised."\nThe Lions Club has built two shelters in the park with their own funding and labor, a task that Little feels has gone unmatched by any other organization in Bloomington.\n"We consider ourselves ardent supporters of the Parks and Rec. program," he said. "We believe in their program, we applaud so many, many of their activities, this is the one instance where we feel we cannot support this particular proposal."\nThe Parks Department now has until the end of the calendar year to reintroduce their proposal. Should they choose not to, the proposed ordinance will expire.\nIn other city council news:\nAfter extensive debate, the council voted to wave a five-year requirement of local service and approved Mayor John Fernandez' choice for the new Bloomington Fire Chief, Jeff Barlow. The council also gave its support to the sale of economic development revenue bonds to Grandview Care, Inc. to renovate and take over the Willow Manor facility on South Walnut Pike.