Our View: Enough With The One-Day Alcohol Permits

It’s time that the select board reconsider issuing one-day alcohol permits to individual shops. For this week’s Christmas By The Sea stroll, the board issued more than a dozen permits for stores to provide free beer and wine to customers. This was done despite the caution of Police Chief Michael Anderson, who noted that there were concerns about the serving of alcohol during the recent Oktoberfest celebration, when beer was poured in two different outdoor locations in town. The number of one-day licenses, which rely on store staff to monitor after taking a simple online program, increases the chance of abuse.

What’s wrong with serving cider or (non-adulterated) eggnog? Why the need for beer and wine? First Night’s non-alcohol, family-friendly policy is a big selling point; why can’t Christmas By The Sea be the same? Five or six downtown restaurants or bars with liquor licenses will be open during the stroll. Why can’t those who want to imbibe stop in one of those establishments, which have experienced, well-trained staff to prevent someone from walking onto the street with a cup filled with beer or wine (an arrestable offense in Chatham, by the way)? To be clear, this is not about nonprofit organizations that get one-day permits for benefits throughout the year. It’s about the proliferation of one-day liquor permits given to shops both during holiday events and throughout the year to ostensibly celebrate something.

Shops shouldn’t rely on free alcohol to attract customers; if that’s the case, there needs to be some serious thinking about where celebrations like Christmas By The Sea are heading.