Council adopts alcohol ordinances

Published 10:20 pm Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Selma residents will have to leave the alcohol at home on Friday nights.

The Selma City Council approved two ordinances Tuesday preventing businesses from allowing alcohol to be brought onto the premises and later consumed. The first prevents businesses are owned and operated by the same entity to allow patrons to drink alcoholic beverages after bringing them onto the property, whether the business is licensed to sell alcohol or not. The second would prevent a business that is leasing a building to allow alcohol to be consumed after being “brown bagged” onto the premises.

Both initially included weddings, but a later amendment removed the word from the ordinances.

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City attorney Jimmy Nunn also discussed ways to annex the YMCA, off of Medical Center Parkway, into the city limits.

The city limits extend to the median of Medical Center Parkway on the portion of road adjacent to the YMCA. In a previous meeting, Nunn said the limits pose a problem because property must directly touch the city limits to be come a part of Selma.

After doing research, he recommended the city annex the other portion of Medical Center Parkway prior to the YMCA, but recommended avoiding the “long lasso approach” — annexing a small strip of road to bring a large portion of land into the city limits.

“I actually had to go back to an act of the Legislature in 1967 to find what I was looking for with the boundaries,” Nunn said. “At the time, the road had a different name. I would recommend annexing the other half of Medical Center Parkway to allow whoever wants to come in or more specifically whoever wants to present a petition.”

Selma City Councilwoman Susan Keith, who represents Ward 2, previously said the YMCA board unanimously voted for annexation. Reasons for annexation partially include the fact the city provides tax money to help fund the YMCA, but also because it could be used as a voting location and meeting place for her ward.