Pleasant Grove rejects ordinance banning Sunday beer sales

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Pleasant Grove rejects ordinance banning Sunday beer sales

Pleasant Grove • You can still buy beer here on Sundays, but you have to get out of the car to do it.

At a standing-room only meeting, the City Council voted 4-1 Tuesday to reject an ordinance that would have outlawed Sunday beer sales. The council did approve the other half of the ordinance, which prohibits beer sales at drive-up windows.

“What’s next? Are we going to legalize marijuana?” Councilman Jeffrey Wilson, the lone dissenter, said as he argued for restricting beer sales on Sundays.

But the other council members said it was important to recognize that the city, while still predominantly LDS, was getting more diverse as it grows, and the city should not impose the majority’s religious views on the minority through legislation.

“This goes back to 17th-century England,” Councilman Lee Jensen said. “They had blue laws, and the reason for them were religious.”

Councilman Val Danklef said he does not drink alcohol and will not go shopping on Sundays. But he would never think of making that the law.

The ordinance was triggered by BJ Hopkin’s decision to sell beer at his BJ’s Short Stop convenience store three weeks ago.

Hopkin said he had been told that it was illegal to sell beer in the city on Sundays, but when he checked the city ordinances, he found that it was not illegal. He said there was a Utah County prohibition on Sunday sales, but that was repealed years ago, leaving the decision to individual cities.

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Hopkin and his wife, LaVella, said opening on Sundays has improved business.

“We do as much beer sales on Sunday as we do on Saturdays, which is a big beer day,” Hopkin said.

LaVella Hopkin said the store does not hire clerks who are younger than 21, and they all go through training with the county on how to avoid selling beer to minors.

But Hopkin will have to stop selling beer from his drive-up window.

Councilwoman Cindy Boyd said having people come into the store to buy beer was safer, because it allowed the clerk to see that the buyer is an adult and not drunk.

Hopkin said that would create a hardship for some of his disabled customers and people who do not want to get their whole family out of the car when they buy beer at the store.

But LaVella Hopkin saw a bright side to the restriction. She said beer buyers may decide to buy other things while they are inside.

“They might decide to pick up a couple bags of chips,” she said.