Council learns 2016 arts & crafts fair will feature a new alcohol sales area

City councilmen Bobby Simpson, left, and Bill Buckman compare notes prior to the start of Tuesday night’s city council meeting.

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2016, 11:45 p.m. — On the weekend of Oct. 8 and 9, thousands of people will visit Bardstown for the 36th annual festival that focuses on arts, crafts and antiques. For the first time in the event’s history, that spotlight will be shared somewhat by the one addition — liquor.

At Tuesday night’s Bardstown City Council meeting, City Clerk Barbie Bryant told the council this year’s Arts, Crafts & Antique Fair will also include a sizeable spirits garden that will be placed directly on the lawn in front of Spalding Hall. The spirit garden will be managed by the Bardstown Rotary Club, the local civic group that also manages the Kentucky Bourbon Festival spirit garden.

This is the first year that the long-running arts and crafts fair will sell alcohol, Bryant said.

The spirit garden will be fenced off as has been the case with the Bourbon Festival spirit garden. Arts and crafts fair patrons will not be allowed to leave the fenced-in area with alcoholic beverages, Bryant said.

The plans for a spirit garden weren’t mentioned when the Bardstown Mainstreet program asked the Bardstown City Council to approve the street closures for the annual event, which includes North Fifth Street from the St. Joseph Church parking lot to Broadway; North Fourth Street from Flaget to Broadway; and West Flaget between North Fourth and North Fifth Streets.

The spirit garden will only be open during the fair’s hours — from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8 and and though the fair begins at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 8, the spirit garden won’t begin serving until 1 p.m. It will sell until the fair closes that day at 5 p.m.

Bryant said she was just giving the council a heads-up about the change because it was a significant change in the venue. The beer garden is on Spalding Hall property so no action was needed by the council.

TRAVEL POLICY. The council approved a travel and training policy that has been discussed at several recent council meetings.

Councilman Fred Hagan had proposed the policy as a way to avoid forcing council members to justify their reimbursement requests for training. The policy allocates $1,000 per calendar year to each member of the council to be used to pay for training and related travel expenses.

Councilwoman Kecia Copeland had expressed concerns about the policy because it specifically mentioned the Kentucky League of Cities trainings, which historically have been paid by the city when those trainings are taken as part of the KLC’s annual convention.

Larry Green provides an update on possible sign ordinance changes under investigation at Tuesday night’s city council meeting.

The new policy apparently will now require members of the council to pay for those KLC convention trainings out of their annual $1,000 allocations.

Hagan told Copeland that if the city was going to pay for KLC-specific training, the ordinance would need to specify how it would be paid for. “We can’t just say, ‘The city’s going to pay for it,'” he said. “That doesn’t mean anything.”

Hagan stood firm on the wording of the municipal order, noting that this was the fourth time the council had considered it and no one had brought up anything different to a vote.

“We take action when we vote, not when we talk,” he said.

The council approved the order in a 5-1 vote with Copeland voting against the measure.

In other business, the city council:

— gave final approval of updates to the city’s alcohol beverage control ordinances so they match state regulartions.

— approved the New Life Center’s request to use city streets for its planned 5k walk/run on Nov. 24, 2016.

NEXT UP. The council will not conduct a working session on Oct. 4. The council will next meet on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016.

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