By T. Scott Boatright
The Lincoln Parish Library (LPL) Board of Control took its next — and maybe biggest — step toward its hopes of having alcohol allowed inside the LPL Events Center as it approved potential policy amendments during its monthly August meeting.
Next the LPL Board will take those requested policy amendments to the Lincoln Parish Police Jury to see if the LPPJ will amend some ordinances of its own to advance those hopes of allowing alcohol to be served during Events Centers gatherings.
Currently, a Police Jury ordinance prohibits the use of alcoholic beverages on LPPJ property, which includes the LPL and Events Center.
It’s all being discussed upon recommendations from talks to the Ruston-Lincoln Convention and Visitors Bureau to increase rentals at the Events Center.
One of the amendments the LPL Board wants to make is to require special events liability insurance for Events Center gatherings of 400 or more people when alcohol could be served.
“Our old policy requires liability insurance at every event, but we don’t insist on that,” said LPL Board Events Center Committee Chairman Bill Jones, who is spearheading the move to make the amendments and increase Events Center rentals. “We don’t believe it’s a good thing to have a policy in place but not enforce it or apply it, so we have stated that a renter must obtain liability insurance, which is not terribly expensive and is readily available. That is for events for 400 or more attendees.”
That number of “400 or more” was derived from the fact that the average Events Center gathering is for less than 400 people according to LPL Director Jeremy Bolom.
Another recommended amendment approved during Thursday’s meeting was updating and clarifying the Events Center policy on an “Indemnification and Hold Harmless” agreement in which a renter agrees to indemnify and hold the library, the Events Center, and their employees, agents, representatives, officers and directors harmless from any and all claims, demands, liabilities, damages, charges, expenses, or actions, including attorney’s fees, whether for personal injury or property damage arising from or related to a renter’s use of the Events Center and its parking lot to the fullest extent of the law.
Should alcohol become allowed at the Events Center, renters will have to pay fees for one security officer per 100 people attending the gathering.
Also approved was that the policy should prohibit event attendees from bringing their own alcohol to the Events Center, and that any alcohol served or sold there must be served by a bartender with a valid, Louisiana-issued alcoholic beverage caterer’s permit.
“It’s possible to get a bartender’s permit with a 30–45-minute online course,” Jones said. “That is not what this is. It will have to be a caterer’s permit, and the renter will have to furnish a copy of that permit no less than 14 days prior to the event. If they don’t, they don’t get to serve alcoholic beverages.”
The motion approved by the LPL Board of Control is that the LPL Board formally requests the Lincoln Parish Police Jury to permit the serving and consumption of alcoholic beverages at the Events Center provided that the serving and consumption of alcoholic beverages is done in compliance with the library’s policies and rules as approved by the Police Jury.
That motion was passed 5-1, with Jan Canterbury, Sandra Dupree, Amanda Norris, Stephanie Smith and Milton Melton all voting yes while Board Trustee Deborah Gilliam was the lone opposing vote.
Next that request will be forwarded to the Lincoln Parish Police Jury.
But it will still be at least a two-month process before potentially being finalized.
The LPPJ will first have to introduce the request at one of its meetings before then taking the matter into consideration and potentially voting on it during a meeting after the one in which the matter could be introduced should the LPPJ decide to move forward with the LPL’s Board request.
