By T. Scott Boatright
The Lincoln Parish Library Board of Control knows it has to make the LPL Events Center profitable for budgetary reasons and is exploring ideas to be able to do so.
On Thursday, the Board’s Events Center committee gathered at the library to do just such, with the discussion focusing on a potential teaming with the Ruston-Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau.
A big factor in any such deal concerns whether or not an election is held to consider making amendments to the city of Ruston’s alcohol ordinances that could help that happen.
The embryonic idea proposes a possible partnership between the LPL Board and the Convention and Visitors Bureau, with the CVB providing management and marketing services in an attempt to increase rentals of the Events Center in hopes of having it pay for itself.
Potential changes to Ruston’s alcohol ordinances could be a lynchpin toward making such an agreement beneficial to both the Events Center and the CVB.
More than 3,300 people signed a recent petition to allow Ruston voters to decide whether or not to make such changes, and The Louisiana Economic Growth Committee, with the support of Brookshire’s and Walmart.
Louisiana law dictates the committee had 60 days to get 2,454 signatures to secure an election. Lincoln Parish Registrar of Voters, Sharon Parnell was given 30 business days to verify the signatures.
Ruston’s City Council will be required to order such an election if enough of the petition’s signatures gathered by the Hutch Consulting group are verified.
The push behind the petition is to allow Ruston grocers Grocery retailers in Ruston to sell “hard liquor” that has alcohol content higher than the less than 6% by volume beer and low those stores are currently allowed to sell.
Any potential election would include five propositions that would all have to pass for any changes to be made.
Should the CVB offer a plan to try and make an agreement with the LPL Board of Control, it will likely want alcohol ordinance changes to be passed in order to allow Events Center renters to be able to serve alcohol on premises during the events the rentals are made for.
And that’s where the rule that the five propositions Louisiana Law requires must all be passed comes into play for a potential Library Board/CVB deal.
Those propositions that would have to all be passed are:
1. Shall the sale of beverages of alcoholic content containing not more than six percent alcohol by volume be permitted by package only and not for consumption on the premises in Ruston?
2. Shall the sale of beverages of alcoholic content containing not more than six percent alcohol by volume for consumption on the premises be permitted in Ruston, Louisiana?
3. Shall the sale of beverage alcohol containing one half of one percent alcohol by volume and above for consumption on the premises be permitted in Ruston?
4. Shall the sale of beverages of alcoholic content containing one half of one percent alcohol by volume and above be permitted by package only and not for consumption on the premises in Ruston?
5. Shall the sale of beverages of high and low alcoholic content be permitted only on the premises of restaurant establishments which have been issued an “R” permit as defined by law in Ruston?
The issue has been voted on in Ruston before with the most being only three of the five propositions be passed during an election..
Should the petition be verified in upcoming weeks, Ruston’s Board of Aldermen would have to vote during its December to hold an election on the matter, likely on March 25 of next year, which would be the next Louisiana election date.
LPL Board committee chair Bill Jones during the discussion said that something has to be done to make the Events Center pay for itself, and that will take dedicated management.
Library Children’s Director Marcie Nelson is currently doing double duty by also serving to manage the Events Center.
“The library staff has done as good a job as they can do all these,” Jones said. “But they’re library staff and we haven’t had dedicated management (for the Events Center). The CVB has expressed an interest. We have exchanged information.
“(CVB Director Amanda Carrier) said they’re going to work up not necessarily a proposal, but a projection, of what usage of the Events Center would be if it was actively marketed by someone dedicated to that role and not also have to work with the library.”
Jones said that if and when such a potential proposal should come about, it would only be for one year to judge its effect for both parties.
Another part of any such plan would require the Lincoln Parish Police Jury, which owns the library property, to change its regulations of no alcohol allowed on LPPJ property to OK the use during potential rental events held at the Events Center.
But for now, it’s a waiting game for the Library Board as it waits to receive more information from Carrier as well as awaiting the outcome of Ruston’s alcohol ordinance situation.
