EUREKA SPRINGS -- Some people say public drinking can lead to problems.
"You're talking about death, mayhem and expense," Alderman Mickey Schneider told other City Council members at a recent meeting.
Eureka Springs, population 2,073, relies on tourism, so it might seem like a logical place for an entertainment district, but Schneider said she represents many people who are against it.
"This whole entertainment district thing is so wrong for Eureka it's pathetic and unbelievable that it's gotten this far," she said.
The council postponed until Sept. 9 the final reading of an ordinance allowing entertainment districts, where the consumption of alcohol would be allowed on city streets to some degree.
The ordinance passed 5-1 on the first two readings, with Schneider being the lone dissenter.
After Schneider spoke at Monday's meeting, Alderman Harry Meyer said he was regretting his previous votes supporting the measure.
"Shop owners that I've talked to don't want people walking into their stores with a drink and staggering and maybe spilling it on their artwork and so forth," Meyer told the council. "I don't think this is going to bring more business to Eureka Springs. And I think we ought to just wait and watch Little Rock. This has been borrowed from them, and they have just opened theirs up. So we don't know what's going to happen. There's no rush."
Entertainment districts have recently been established in Little Rock, Mountain Home and El Dorado. Other cities, such as Fayetteville, are considering them. Entertainment districts were made legal by Act 812, which was passed by the Arkansas Legislature earlier this year.
According to the draft of Eureka Springs' ordinance, it would authorize creating permanent and temporary entertainment districts, establish standards for their creation and declare an emergency exists.
"The purpose of an entertainment district is to promote hospitality and tourism within the city and to highlight restaurant, nightlife entertainment and hospitality options for tourists," according to the draft ordinance.
In a town famous for its ghosts, one looms large over the idea of drinking in the street -- the Eureka Springs Blues Festival of 1994.
Locals say there were 10,000 people in the street and 32 were arrested at the Blues Festival on the Saturday night of June 4, 1994. But an article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette painted a slightly different picture.
"Police broke up a crowd of about 1,000 reportedly drunken revelers Saturday night at Basin Park after an impromptu concert," according to the June 8, 1994, article. "Officers arrested two men on charges of inciting a riot and disorderly conduct and 11 other people during the Blues Fest, most for public drunkenness."
Schneider said she remembers that particular Blues Fest. She said intoxicated people were staggering up and down Spring Street, going from one bar to another while dodging traffic and sloshing beer from open containers. Schneider said it would have been easy for someone to step out in traffic and get killed by a car.
The city received several letters after the event.
"Massive drinking on the streets was obvious by a wide range of age groups -- many appeared to be under legal drinking age," James Peterson, assistant superintendent of schools in Huntsville, Texas, wrote in a letter to the mayor, police chief and City Council.
Others said police were the problem. Petitions circulated saying police enlisted from outside the city employed "Gestapo tactics" to "promote confrontations and create dissent."
One letter writer said a Carroll County Sheriff's Office captain called him a "peckerhead." Twice.
Schneider said the festival is smaller now than it was then. It's now called the Eureka Springs Blues Weekend.
"That was why we the city cut back on what was going on," she said Wednesday. "There was so much free drinking going on outside, including minors, we said no more."
It could be like that again if the city establishes an entertainment district, Schneider said.
Just because other cities are doing it doesn't mean Eureka Springs needs to, she told the City Council at its Monday meeting.
Schneider said the city bills itself as being family friendly and only has one main street through the historic part of town -- the two-lane, dog-legged Spring Street. It's lined with shops, restaurants, bars and a couple of hotels.
"Are families going to come?" Schneider asked the council. "Are adults with children going to come on a weekend when we have mass drinking going on? No, they're not."
Kendra Hughes, who is on the city's entertainment district committee, said the idea isn't to have large crowds drinking openly in downtown streets.
"Residents are concerned and rightfully so," Hughes said. "They don't want whooping and hollering in their area, and we don't want that either."
Hughes, who as a committee member represents downtown business owners, said the committee hasn't discussed closing Spring Street so it could serve as an entertainment district. Also, she said the committee has been talking about having an entertainment district until 11 p.m., not until bars close at 2 a.m.
"The Committee has NEVER considered closing any streets," Alderman Bob Thomas, who serves on the entertainment committee, said in an email. "We have a working schedule to take to council, if the opportunity comes to pass, and it does suggest closing the entertainment district at 11 p.m. The thought behind that was that people out after that are probably more interested in serious drinking and bar life. There would not be that many people interested in strolling along while socially drinking."
Hughes said it would be nice for people to be able to legally have a drink in hand while listening to bands in Basin Spring Park or walking back to their hotels after dinner.
"We have music in the park down here all through the summer," she said. "I think it might enhance that."
Hughes said the enabling ordinance doesn't create an entertainment district, but it opens the door for entertainment districts to be established later on. If the council passes the enabling ordinance, it could create more than one entertainment district, she said.
The details are "still really up in the air right now," she said Thursday.
Hughes sent a letter to the mayor and council members Tuesday.
"Alderwoman Schneider expressed concerns that if the streets weren't closed, drunk people would be stumbling into traffic," Hughes wrote. "This is a town with multiple pub crawls, festivals, events, bars and generally a vacation and party place for our visitors. This is a problem we would already be having if it was a serious concern. People can currently drunkenly stumble into the streets from the bar, and if they are stumbling or dangerous to themselves or others, the same public intox rules that have always existed will still exist."
Hughes said she believes being able to move around a bigger space while carrying a cocktail will probably encourage less drunkenness than confining people to small spaces where they have nothing to do but drink.
Autumn Slane, a member of the entertainment committee who represents tavern owners, emailed the council Wednesday: "Everyone feels like it's going to be another Blues Fest with craziness in the streets," she wrote. "Trust me, I don't want that either! The bottom-line is our customer has changed. Our customer is now the people that are adventurers, hikers, cyclist, kayakers. They are girls weekends, shopping and spa days. These are the people that want to enjoy that craft brew or glass of wine while they walk and shop."
Caleb Lindsey, manager of Tee Rex, a shop on Spring Street, said he supports the idea of an entertainment district. He said tourists often assume it's legal to drink on the street in Eureka Springs. Occasionally, he steps outside Tee Rex to tell people who are drinking from beer cans that they might get a ticket.
"People have always had that misconception about Eureka Springs," he said. "It's not New Orleans. It's not the wild, wild West."
Natasha Treuer, who works at a Spring Street shop called Nelson's, said people want to walk to Chelsea's Corner bar after dinner for entertainment, and it would be nice if they could take their drinks with them in plastic cups.
Nate Huff, a co-owner of Chelsea's, said he likes the idea of an entertainment district, but he's "afraid they'll do it wrong."
"There's a lot of stuff that'll have to be worked out," he said. "I think it's going to be good if they can figure it all out. It's going to take some discussion."
An entertainment district workshop is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the lobby of The Auditorium. The public is invited.
NW News on 09/01/2019