CLEARWATER, Fla. — The Clearwater City Council is looking at cutting back on the hours Clearwater Beach bars can serve alcohol.
The council is considering cutting back the hours to 1:00 a.m. from 3:00 a.m. for bars in Clearwater Beach, Sand Keys and Island Estates.
What You Need To Know
- Clearwater City Council looking at cutting back beach bar hours
- Council considering closing bars at 1 am instead of 3 am due to increase in after hours police calls
- Council to wait six months before making decision
Police report more calls for service are being made in those late hours there than anywhere else in the city.
Thursday night, the council voted 4-1 to give bar owners six months to work on reducing complaints and issues with rowdy patrons.
According to Spectrum Bay News 9’s partner newspaper the Tampa Bay Times, council member Mark Bunker voted no after noting he didn’t hear enough specifics about how they were going to mitigate problems.
But some bar owners say the shorter hours could severely hurt their business.
“I would say this probably cost me 30 percent in business,” said Glenn Sutch, owner of Coco’s Crush Bar & Grill.
Sutch said the city would be punishing everyone for the actions of a few.
“If there’s a forest full of trees and there are a couple bad trees in that forest every once and a while right?” Sutch said, “I would say maybe focus on fixing those trees and making those places better. And not punishing the rest of us.”