Beer Sales at Baseball Games at Fort Marcy Park Turned Down by SF Committee
Baseball mixed with beer struck out Monday night at City Hall.
Santa Fe’s Public Works Committee nixed a plan to operate a beer garden during low-level professional baseball games at Fort Marcy Park. The final word will rest with the full City Council, which will consider the proposal next month.
City Councilor Miguel Chavez worried city approval of the plan would broadcast a “mixed message” about drinking and driving.
“I can’t support it. It’s a contradiction,” he said.
The Pecos League wants to bring a team to Fort Marcy ballpark in 2012. League officials say beer provides important revenue and bringing in a club isn’t worth the effort without those sales.
But more than a dozen people who showed up for a public comment session Monday spoke against serving beer at Fort Marcy.
“I will work tirelessly and ceaselessly to ensure that a beer garden is never, ever at Fort Marcy Park,” Nyira Gitana declared. She said it was a “potentially dangerous activity to permit beer sales during a so-called family event.”
Another woman said, “It’s not a family event if moms and dads are in the beer garden. Who’s taking care of the children?”
Beer wasn’t the only concern. Several Fort Marcy area residents worried that baseball games might negatively affect their quality of life. Others didn’t like what they said was a lack of public input about what seems like a “done deal” with the Pecos League.
The ordinance and accompanying resolution reviewed by the committee would require that buffers be placed around a designated beer garden; there would be only a couple of restricted entrances manned by security guards; no underage people be admitted to the beer garden; drinkers wear wristbands that restrict consumption to three drinks; and that sales stop by the end of the sixth inning.
The city would either hire a vendor to sell beer or run the operation itself.
City Councilor Ron Trujillo, sponsor of the proposal, said a baseball team could provide a bit of an economic boost to Santa Fe and give locals something to do. Don’t assume baseball fans would abuse the opportunity to buy beer, he said.
“I would love to bring this team here and not have alcohol,” Trujillo said.
But, he added, “This community deserves a place to take their family, a recreation. You can only watch television for so many hours. There are other things we as a city need to provide.”
Trujillo is chairman of the city’s Public Safety Committee, an advisory body that approved the plan last week.
The last time a professional sports team approached the City Council with a proposal to sell alcohol on city property was in 2006. The council unanimously rejected a request from the Santa Fe RoadRunners to allow beer to be sold at the Junior A hockey club’s games at the Genoveva Chavez Community Center.
City Councilor Chris Calvert said he didn’t see any differences between the two situations other than “that was hockey and this is baseball.”
“I don’t think that’s a good way to set policy,” Calvert said.
Calvert also said he’s been told the Pecos League wants the city to pay for improvements to the ballpark. City officials couldn’t immediately address that issue.
