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Treasure Island considers alcohol ban
By LEE DIEKEMPER
| Article published on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009 |
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TREASURE ISLAND – Banning kegs on the beach in Treasure Island will most likely happen in the coming weeks.
In the coming months, a total ban on alcohol could take place.
That was the result during a special Treasure Island commission workshop on Aug. 5 to discuss the Sunset Beach situation.
In the past several months, Sunset Beach has become a popular designation for not only residents of Treasure Island, but the Tampa Bay area. Treasure Island is one of the few places in the region to allow alcohol on the beach.
But with the popularity sometimes comes unwanted circumstances. Sunset Beach residents have complained bitterly, angrily, sometimes emotionally about the crowds.
Complaints about inability to navigate the narrow neighborhood’s roads due to contested parking, residents being trapped in their homes unable to get out of their driveways, public urination, drunkenness and lewd behavior have also been reported.
Residents had wanted a permit-only parking for residents but such a measure would have jeopardized millions of dollars of beach renourishment funds which the city wasn’t about to risk losing.
Police Chief Tim Casey long proposed banning parking on one side of the street, but the Sunset Beach residents were vehemently opposed to that, until now.
During the workshop, which Mayor Bob Minning pleaded with citizens to offer resolutions, the Sunset Beach residents offered up a list of issues related to the crowds and solutions they would welcome.
Surprisingly, banning parking on one side of the street was offered as a resolution, seemingly as a compromise of sorts. This too will be on a future workshop agenda.
Previously, Commissioners Ed Gayton, Phil Collins and Alan Bildz had favored banning kegs on the beach. A vote on this ban is set for the next commission workshop Aug. 18.
But banning alcohol may be on the horizon. Minning noted that residents are gathering signatures for a petition to have a ban on alcohol placed on the March ballot during the next municipal election.
“The commission has no control over that,” Minning said. A ban on alcohol on the beach would have to be passed by a referendum.
Minning noted that this would be for public use of the beach and would not affect businesses such as Caddy’s on the Beach on Sunset Beach, which has become a lightning rod amidst the growing Sunset Beach controversy.
City officials said other possible resolutions to the Sunset Beach congestion include additional trash cans be added to the beach, more frequent trash collection, signs posting local ordinances and raising the fines for parking and traffic violations.
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Article published on Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009
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