City ordinance talks continue to cause friction

A draft of revised ordinances is continuing to cause friction between the Libby City Council and Libby store owners who don’t like the idea of paying a permit fee to have items outside.

Members of the public gathered at the council’s ordinance and regulation committee meeting Thursday to discuss the draft of the revised ordinances that would accommodate a request from the Cabinet Mountain Brewing Co. to serve alcohol in five-by-30-foot permanently enclosed area outside the brewery. The brewery is set to open in July.

However, request has highlighted the inability in the current city ordinances to grant this. As it stands, the request would violate the current ordinance that prohibits an open container in public. The city is now looking to Great Falls and Billings where the micro-brewery boom has meant revisions to those cities’ municipal code.

The brewery’s request brought up the even more contentious issue of encroachment on a public way.

In yesterday’s meeting, Libby City Attorney James Reintsma said merchants have been violating a long-standing ordinance that prohibits businesses from putting anything from furniture to clothing racks on the sidewalk.

Because the city has not been enforcing this ordinance, it could be liable if someone were hurt on that encroachment, Reintsma said.

For businesses setting out their products for the day, it would only be this annual permit fee. For businesses like the brewery that would have an exclusive-use permit that would be permanent there would be the permit fee and a per square footage fee that Reintsma suggested be $1.

In Thursday’s meeting, Sears Hometown Store manager Charlie Thomson pointed out that he, like many business owners, had already spent money maintaining the sidewalks outside his business.

“We go out there every morning and we shovel the snow,” Thomson said. “We didn’t get any kickback from the city for that. And we were told we had to maintain the sidewalks before they (re-did) the streets...yet if someone is hurt on your sidewalk, it is the business owner who is liable?”

Reintsma confirmed this.

Other concerns included the decision to look to ordinances from cities and not smaller towns like Polson, as well as how the brewery would manage the flow of alcohol in the outdoor area.

Reintsma said there would be one more committee meeting next Thursday before the draft went before the City Council.