RAPID CITY, SD (KOTA) – Wednesday’s Law and Finance Committee meeting resulted in the alcohol sales hours ordinance being presented to the Rapid City Council full meeting on Monday. The law firm drafted the ordinance that was presented at the meeting.

CONTEXT: “Time of sobriety”: Alcohol sales opening hours could change due to the request to amend the regulation

Before the vote, Mobile Medic Captain Ryan Marks spoke about how the current hours of operation are affecting the fire department. He said that in the last 30 days, the RCFD has responded to 171 calls for service between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. Thirty-six of those calls were specifically for drunken incidents. That’s a little under $20,000. If that amount isn’t paid, it will be sent to a collection agency.

The council also approved a write-off of more than $600,000 in ambulance patient accounts on Wednesday.

The discussion was then opened for public comment, with one person raising concerns that someone would definitely lose their rights.

“Maybe there are other things we should be doing. For example, there should be certain places where alcohol should not be sold. They’re near a school, they’re near a park, maybe there should be those restrictions. I don’t have an answer, but we have the problem because we are you. They are us,” Mike Quansney said.

Councilman Kevin Maher was the only council member to speak against the ordinance, which is scheduled to go before the council at its full meeting on Monday.

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