HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-19-16, Public Comment, B. McElgunn,Tap RoomDear Bozeman City Commissioners:
I am opposed to granting the liquor license application for the Bozeman Taproom.
Both of my children attend Hawthorne Elementary. My 4th grader’s classroom on the west side of
Hawthorne school on the 2nd floor directly overlooks the Taproom every day from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM.
The rules for beer and wine licensee allow serving from 10 AM to 8 PM with limits on the number of
ounces a patron can consume (48 ounces per day). The Taproom is not a brewery. They do not brew their
own beer. They serve the craft brewed beer manufactured by other breweries.
Adding a liquor license elevates the number of patrons visiting the Taproom. It also doesn’t allow for
liquor limits, outside the judgement of the bartender.
Allowing liquor to be provided now makes the Taproom a “party” destination for getting drunk, rather than
the Taproom’s claim of being “a room in which alcoholic drinks, especially beer (and wine) are available
on tap; a bar, not a brewery”. The Taproom lists their business hours on their website as “Open 7 days a
week, 11 AM to 2 AM”.
I believe the application for a liquor license became necessary for the owners of the Taproom to justify the
above listed hours; and to fill financial void that serving beer, wine and mediocre food left when they
couldn’t make their monthly quotas.
Allowing liquor to be consumed within eyeshot of Hawthorne Elementary gives more sinister and shady
people in our community an opportunity to ogle kids aged 5 to 12. Those same people can get increasingly
drunk any time during school hours; those same drunk people get into their cars and increase the risks of
alcohol related vehicle crashes and injuries.
Allowing liquor creates a more dangerous environment for my children. I can no longer protect them from
patrons drinking hard alcohol.
I also believe the Taproom was quite sneaky in their original beer/wine license application by listing the
main entrance to Taproom as a Mendenhall address rather than a Rouse Ave address. The Taproom should
have never been granted a beer/wine license initially due to this erroneous address listing.
I urge commissioners to deny the liquor license application for the Taproom to keep our community safe,
not just the Hawthorne School Kids.
Thank you
Breana McElgunn, ND
Gallatin Valley Natural Medicine
2002 N. 22nd Ave, Suite 2
Bozeman, MT 59718
406-587-0858
www.gvnm.info