Third Thursday ArtWalk organizers are asking the village of Saranac Lake to allow attendees to drink alcoholic beverages on the sidewalks, like this one filled with artists and shoppers in 2018. (Enterprise photo — Griffin Kelly)

Village officials in Tupper Lake and Saranac Lake are discussing whether or not to allow alcohol consumption at public parks and events this summer.

In Tupper Lake, a trustee is campaigning for the village to allow people to drink at the Municipal Park, where the Riverpigs play baseball and Tupper Arts holds concerts at the Sunset Stage bandshell.

In Saranac Lake, the organizers of the Third Thursday ArtWalks are asking the board to lift its open container ban on village sidewalks during these monthly events.

–

Drinks at the park?

–

Village Trustee Ron LaScala brought the issue up at a meeting last week, saying he believes people attending Riverpigs games and concerts at the Municipal Park should be able to drink beer.

“They’re adults. They’re 21 years old. They pay taxes. They go to work. … They are free Americans,” LaScala said. “And they should have a right to drink in a park that they pay for.”

Though there are “no alcohol” signs hung on the fences around the baseball field, it is common to hear someone cracking open a beer can in the stands or see someone slipping a bottle from a cooler into an insulating sleeve.

“It happens every day,” LaScala said. “We see it all the time. People hide in the corners.”

He said people are drinking at games in “secret,” but it is an open secret. The “no alcohol” rule is rarely enforced. He said he’d like to allow people to drink alcohol officially, on the books.

Trustee Leon Leblanc worried that allowing people to drink might open the village up to legal liability if someone gets injured or aggressive.

“There were some problems when we had softball leagues,” Mayor Paul Maroun said. “Sometimes some guys would get out of hand in the stands and then we had to call the police.”

LaScala acknowledged that there were violence problems in the past related to excessive drinking at the field, but he said the previous village board “threw the baby out with the bathwater” with its solution of banning alcohol.

Leblanc said alcohol use is “hard to contain,” that “people are people” and that the current rules work.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he said.

Leblanc said he’d be fine with opening up the alcohol laws at the park if distribution was limited to a vendor with a license and insurance.

Maroun said he hopes a group or business applies for a season-long ballgame license, which allows a vendor to sell beer through a season, until the start of the seventh inning. He said people would not be able to bring in their own drinks, though.

LaScala said he finds it hard to believe the village would be held liable for any problems that could arise through drinking, and he thinks most issues are covered by other laws.

“I think there are enough laws on the books,” he said.

“There’s nothing more American than baseball, beer and hot dogs,” LaScala added.

LaScala operates a hot dog cart called “AdiRONdogs” at Riverpigs games occasionally. He said he does not have intentions to sell alcohol at this cart. He said he does not drink, himself, and dislikes being around drunk people.

The village board will discuss this at its next meeting on Aug. 18.

Maroun said he’ll look at the local laws of towns and villages nearby. He has asked the village attorney and the village’s insurance company, New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal, to weigh in.

–

Alcohol at ArtWalk?

–

On Monday, Kirk Sullivan, the chair of the village Arts and Culture Advisory Board and vice president of the Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, asked the village board to consider lifting its open container ordinance for the two final Third Thursday ArtWalk events.

“I’m in favor of trying it out,” Mayor Clyde Rabideau told Sullivan, but he also warned him, “There’s a very fine balance between a family event and an alcohol event.”

The board will discuss this further at its Aug. 9 meeting.

Sullivan said the ArtWalks draw in hundreds of people who walk up and down Broadway and Main Street, taking in the sights and sounds, eating at restaurants and socializing.

“However, something is amiss that we would like to remedy,” Sullivan told the board. “Just like the Ice Palace belongs in our Winter Carnival, boats belong on our lakes and skiers belong on our slopes, beer and wine belong with our celebrations of art.”

He noted that art galleries have beer and wine at their openings. He believes this would enhance engagement and increase participation.

“We do not intend to alter the ArtWalk’s wholesome family-friendly atmosphere,” Sullivan said, pointing out that he’s got young kids of his own.

Sullivan said the Chamber can provide liability insurance and could get a temporary liquor license to sell beer and wine from a tent.

Jacob Vennie-Vollrath, a Saranac Lake resident who has young children as well, supported the request.

“I don’t anticipate it being an issue,” he said at the board’s meeting Monday.

Rabideau said the village would need to define the areas, times, types of containers and enforcement of the temporary law with the police department.

Changing a law, even just lifting one temporarially, takes time, he added. It’s unclear whether this decision will be made before the next ArtWalk on Aug. 19.

Trustee Rich Shapiro asked if the local bars’ liquor licenses allow patrons to take alcohol out of their businesses. Village Manager John Sweeney said that they do not anymore.

On Saturday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo eliminated the take-out alcohol law which allowed bars to serve take-out drinks during the coronavirus pandemic while dining in was not allowed or seating was limited.