Yazoo City’s nightclubs will continue to have to stop serving alcohol at midnight, and now everyone will have to be off the property by 12:30 a.m.
The Mayor and Board of Aldermen amended the city’s ordinance Monday to include the new rule. It was unanimously approved.
“Is it the club owner’s responsibility to get the people of their property,” asked Ward 1 Alderman Ron Johnson.
“Yes, because they own it or lease it,” Mayor Diane Delaware responded.
Delaware said the city did a study to determine when most problems were happening at the city’s nightclubs and event centers. She said that study resulted in the city deciding to require the city nightclubs to stop serving alcohol at midnight.
“At that time we allowed them to have until 1 a.m. to get off the premises, but then of course some things continued to happen,” Delaware said. “There were places where people were still sitting around drinking beer on the premises and potentially causing things to happen.”
The board may also revisit the section of the ordinance that requires nightclubs to have proper security.
“Security is basically the problem,” Johnson said. “It started out good, but I think we got lax on it. I don’t believe nobody has security.”
“It’s all about enforcement,” Delaware said. “Our officers have to enforce those laws. People were worried that police were sitting outside of their clubs at a certain time, but we have the right to do that.”
Ward 4 Alderman Dr. Jack Varner said the police department needs to be sure that all club owners are informed about the new law.
“Let’s be sure they know and not catch them by surprise Saturday night,” Varner said.
