Some Idaho towns tweak liquor laws for New Year's

BOISE — Depending on where they live, some Idaho partygoers won't be toasting 2007 with anything stronger than a beer or a glass of wine, if that.

That's because New Year's Eve falls on a Sunday this year, and a 1947 state law bans the sale of liquor by the drink in Idaho on Sundays.

In some pockets of Idaho — the city of Boise, and Kootenai and Blaine counties among them — revelers can order a hard liquor drink on a Sunday. The law allows cities and counties to overrule the ban, although counties must go through a petition process, while city councils can simply vote to lift it.

But in places where the ban is still in effect — often in conjunction other local Sunday liquor ordinances — some bar and restaurant owners want to tweak the local codes for the big night.

In Preston, the southeast Idaho town that was the setting for the movie "Napoleon Dynamite," the city council decided unanimously last week to extend business hours for bars on Sundays until 1 a.m. Monday, although liquor by the drink on Sundays is still banned. Before the change, the city went dry after 9 p.m. — a stricter version of the state's law.

The Twin Falls City Council voted 5-2 Monday to allow liquor by the drink to be sold permanently on all Sundays, after a group of liquor license holders in the city petitioned the council to lift the ban by Dec. 31.

Twin Falls partiers who prefer liquor might have opted to make the 50-mile drive to Jackpot, Nev., for their New Year's celebration, which would have reduced city revenues from liquor taxes, and made for a dangerous drive home, said Steve Soran, who owns two Twin Falls restaurants and led the drive to lift the ban.

"I've been on the council seven years, and I've never had anyone say, 'We're glad there's no liquor served on Sundays,"' said Vice Mayor Glenda Dwight before the vote.

The net effect of the change on New Year's Eve safety is difficult to gauge, said Twin Falls police Staff Sgt. Dennis Pullin. While selling liquor in town could stop people from driving outside the city on New Year's Eve, it could also mean those driving around inside Twin Falls might be more inebriated.

Twin Falls Mayor Lance Clow, one of the two who voted against lifting the ban, said he worries that relaxing alcohol laws could change the character of his city.

"I have some sympathy for the business community," Clow said. "But I also want to respect the community values that Twin Falls has established."

Meanwhile, as politicians and bar owners throughout the state work frantically to adjust the laws on short notice, in Rexburg, a mostly Mormon town where no liquor by the drink has been served on any day of the week since 1947, local officials have paid little attention to all the flurry.

"I'm sure people will be ringing in the new year here with family and friends and looking forward to a wonderful 2007," said Shawn Larsen, who is mayor of a town that's home to Brigham Young University-Idaho, owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "And more than likely they will not be doing that with alcohol."