HELEN — Helen Mayor Jeff Ash doesn’t want pressing issues to bog down city commission discussion for several months at a time. Instead, he wants commissioners to study issues and vote their convictions as soon as possible.
“Some of the lingering issues came up today,” Ash said after Tuesday morning’s lengthy commission meeting. “I was presented with a petition by one of the [alcohol] license holders for the city commission to consider open containers within the city limits of Helen. That’s the proper procedure.”
Ash asked City Clerk Marilyn Chastain to duplicate the petition and make it available to each commissioner, department head and city official.
“Things like this don’t need to linger,” Ash said. “They need to be voted on yay or nay, and that’s exactly what I want to do is March 20th we will discuss it and take a vote and move on with this year.”
Richard Miley and Chris Holloway of Catch 22 Gastropub both addressed the commission during Tuesday’s meeting to urge commissioners to vote to allow open containers in the city’s dining districts.
Other restauranteurs also were in the audience, as were several residents and merchants.
Miley and Holloway asserted that allowing open containers would boost business for the tourist town, citing Roswell, Gainesville, Smyrna and a section of Nashville where visitors are allowed to purchase alcohol at an eatery then walk around town with it.
