Council sets tavern age discussion timeline

Details about the Maryville City Council's approach to consideration of an age-21 standard for admission to local bars and taverns emerged this week with consensus adoption of a timeline proposing a vote on the issue in July 2013.

Mayor Glenn Jonagan said last month that council deliberations with regard to changing the legal bar-entry age from 19 to 21 would be "a lengthy process," and the new timeline sets forth an extended schedule of public forums, council discussions and meetings with bar owners that will stretch over the next nine months.

If the council adopts an age-21 ordinance in July, the process would then continue through the first full week of August and include talks between city officials and business owners to "discuss expectations" and "obtain input" before Northwest Missouri State University students begin a new fall semester on August 26.

Between now and then, the schedule provides for an "open forum" with bar owners sometime next month, a presentation to the council by Maryville Public Safety officers on January 14, meetings with both bar owners and university students in January and February, a public "town hall" meeting in March, and an online public forum in April designed to garner student responses via social media.

A further Public Safety update is planned for June 17 to be followed by another public forum in July. A proposed council vote on an age-21 ordinance "if determined necessary" is tentatively scheduled for July 22.

Cody Uhing, a member of the Northwest Student Senate who serves as the city council's university liaison, expressed support for the proposed schedule.

"It looks good. I like it," said Uhing, who said the issue has raised student concerns and recently sparked a widespread rumor, spread by Facebook and other social media, that the city was planning to act immediately.

"When this first hit, everyone was worried about it, but that has died down," said Uhing, adding that he was glad the council has opted to seek student input while deliberating the measure over the coming months.

Uhing said informal polling and discussions between senators and their campus constituents show that many students want to keep in the age limit at 19, where it has been since the 1990s. Before that, no age restriction was on the books. Missouri's legal drinking age has been 21 for decades.

"Basically what we've seen is that everyone under 21 is against it, and a majority of students want to keep (the age limit) where it is," he said.

A Maryville Public Safety study conducted earlier this year reviewed alcohol ordinances in eight college towns scattered across the state and revealed a number of differing approaches

Five of the eight cities, Warrensburg, Springfield, Columbia, Kirksville and Joplin deny tavern entry to those under 21.

Under-21 towns include St. Joseph, which nevertheless applies an age-21 standard after 8 p.m. unless the underage patron is accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Other cities in the under-21 camp include Rolla, which has no age restriction, and Cape Girardeau, which allows bar entry to anyone over 18.

A number of Missouri municipalities, including Warrensburg, home of the University of Central Missouri, also ban drinking in public. Maryville is not among them, though Public Safety Director Keith Wood said he would support council passage of such a measure.

Wood said he had urged passage of a drinking-in-public ordinance twice over the past 25 years, but that previous councils rejected it both times.