Champagne and beer fly at the Tupper Lake Municipal Park as the Saranac Lake Surge win the 2021 Empire Professional Baseball League Championship earlier this month. The Tupper Lake village board is currently debating whether or not the law banning open containers in the park should remain. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

TUPPER LAKE — The debate over whether this village will officially allow alcohol to be consumed in its municipal park will likely be settled at next month’s board meeting. It has essentially come down to a discussion of safety, liability and freedom.

Last week, the topic brought some heated debate between board members.

Trustee Ron LaScala, who proposed amending the village law banning open containers in the park last month, argues that it should be villagers’ right to have a beer at a game or concert in the park.

Trustee Leon Leblanc opposes the law change because he worries if drinking is allowed in the park, someone will have too many beers and eventually hurt themselves or someone else. Mayor Paul Maroun believes that changing the law might make the village legally liable if someone does get hurt, and village Attorney Nathan Race had the same concerns.

Maroun said the law is a protection from a civil suit.

LaScala says it is a bigger liability to have a law on the books that can’t feasibly be enforced.

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.

Village police Chief Eric Proulx called the law “unenforceable.” He said when he went to a game this season people kept offering him beer and he’d point out the “No Alcohol” signs hung all around.

Proulx said he’ll work with whatever laws the village decides on, but he supported changing the law.

–

Freedom

–

Leblanc said he’d be fine with the village approving a distributor to sell beer at the park, but LaScala wants people to be able to bring their own beer from home. He says this is an issue of freedom.

“Freedom’s dangerous,” LaScala said. “There’s liability in everything, but at the end of the day, this is about freedom. … We can’t just wrap ourselves in bubble wrap.”

LaScala does not drink, himself. He doesn’t like drinking and he doesn’t like being in drunk crowds, he said, but he said he believes Tupper Lakers should be allowed to drink in the park.

LaScala said people can drink on state lands and other village properties, but not the park, because of a law passed by a previous village board a number of years ago at the behest of former village police chief Ron Cole.

–

Unenforceable?

–

Proulx said he remembers the first Fourth of July when Cole told him to enforce the open container law down at the park.

“We went down there and ran around trying to tell people to put the beer away or get out of the park,” Proulx said. “How do you think that went?

“At large venue events like that, an open container law is unenforceable,” Proulx told the board last week.

LaScala said it’s impossible for two or three officers to go down to the park on the Fourth of July and keep people from drinking.

Leblanc said the police should still go down and do as much as they can.

“They’re going to be doing their job,” Leblanc said.

Proulx also said New York’s bail reform passed in 2019 makes it harder to enforce laws like this. If someone doesn’t show up to court or doesn’t pay their fines, they face no punishments, Proulx said.

State Police will not enforce a local ordinance, he added. There are no state open container laws outside of a vehicle.

Proulx said he does not send officers out to look for local ordinance violations. Local ordinances are useful for when someone calls the police with a complaint.

–

Safety

–

Leblanc was still concerned that allowing drinking would lead to harm through violence or drunk driving.

“If you walk off that park and you run into one of my family members, you’re wrong,” Leblanc said.

LaScala said there are already laws against driving drunk or getting in fights. It’s also up the the Empire Professional Baseball League to control its audiences, too, he said.

Proulx said he has not issued any tickets related to drunken misconduct at the park recently.

LaScala pointed out that Saranac Lake Mayor Clyde Rabideau himself had a drink out of the EPBL trophy after the Saranac Lake Surge won the league championship earlier this month. The celebration on the field was a frenzy of beer and champagne suds.

“Nobody died that night,” LaScala said.

–

Liability

–

Maroun gave a local example of an alcohol liability court case. A biker stopped at a bar in town to use the bathroom, did not have a drink, left, crashed into the lake, sued the bar and won the case.

“It’s very broad when it comes to alcohol,” Maroun said.

LaScala said this liability argument is like “nailing Jell-O to a wall.”

“I guarantee you that no trial jury with video of elected officials and police officers turning a blind eye to people breaking the law in the park would (side with the village),” LaScala said.

Proulx said having the law on the books poses liability for his officers, too.

If they don’t kick one of the hundreds of people drinking out, and that person drives drunk and kills someone, the officer could be liable, he said.

He said if the village keeps its alcohol ordinance, it should work with the EPBL to successfully enforce it.

LaScala suggested the village get a waiver for allowing alcohol in its insurance policy.

Trustee Clint Hollingsworth said the question comes down to what’s going to cost more — getting sued or paying insurance.

Proulx said it’s easy to know what insurance would cost per month or per year, but you can never guess how much a lawsuit could cost.

Maroun said he’ll price out what insurance for this would cost and the board will discuss this topic again on Sept. 15.

The discussion last week largely focused on the field where the Riverpigs professional baseball team brought in huge crowds this summer, but LaScala is looking to allow alcohol to be imbibed in the whole park.

“Tupper Lakers do not do anything if there’s not alcohol involved,” Proulx said.

He said some people won’t go to the games if they can’t bring a beer.

The EPBL season is over now, but there are still events planned down at the park throughout the rest of the warm season.