By PATIENCE COLLIER, staff reporter
Timothy Bishop of the Ellensburg Downtown Association recently went on record with Central’s Newswatch, saying bars in downtown need to be more responsible for the actions of their patrons.
Businesses and residents have had problems recently with drunken behavior on weekends, including students on weeknights. Phil Hasenbalg, junior biology major, that from his apartment, he witnessed a party in the parking lot of a nearby restaurant get broken up by the police.
“I was getting annoyed because I was trying to sleep, then I heard the cops show up,” Hasenbalg said.
Hasenbalg said the police blocked off a street, and put some students in custody. Hasenbalg doesn’tagree the bars are responsible for the behavior of patrons at their establishment, since alcohol is readily available elsewhere, and when bars kick patrons out when they’re too drunk, the responsibility still lies with the patrons themselves.
“I think that it was more just the student or the people’s fault,” Hasenbalg said. “They were the ones out there partying, revving their engines and being loud. They could’ve gone somewhere else to do it, somewhere they weren’t bothering people, but they chose to do it there.”
Hasenbalg felt that kicking out intoxicated patrons was still the bar’s responsibility because of the liability of alcohol poisoning, but that was all they should be held responsible for.
“The bar only has responsibility for the student until they kick them out, and then what that person does outside of the bar is kind of their problem,” Hasenbalg said.
Hasenbalg’s brother, who also witnessed the incident, agreed.
“The bar can kick them out for being drunk, but in the end, the student can just go to a Fred Meyer or something and grab all the alcohol they want,” said Samuel Hasenbalg, senior computer science major.
Ryan Jack, manager at The Tav, said he had not seen serious problems with the patrons.
“Everyone is pretty, well, tame,” Jack said.
Jack didn’t think there was any way to put the responsibility of intoxicated behavior on bars rather than students.
“It’s pretty random,” Jack said. “I don’t think you can pinpoint it to any one place.”
Starlight Lounge owner, Doris Morgan, agreed that she rarely sees problems with students getting too drunk to handle their behavior.
“I don’t think it’s a major problem,” Morgan said. “It’s minimal.”
Morgan feels some issues are unavoidable in a college town.
“You get a lot of kids in one place partying, you’re going to have problems,” Morgan said. “But in general, it’s few and far between.”
Morgan said the Starlight has so few problems with behavior because of the way the business is run.
“We’re conscientious about it,” Morgan said. “Our doormen, bouncers, bartenders, watching for kids who are impaired.”
Sergeant Mike Koss, Ellensburg Police Department, agrees that downtown bars have been responsible where their patrons are concerned, but said any effort that brought the community and the bars together would be a good thing. He said Ellensburg police have been working with the bars on a program called Serving Standards, which allows police to monitor infractions at various establishments and talk to the people involved.
“I think the bars do a pretty good job,” Koss said. Since we’ve started that Serving Standards program, we’ve seen a lot of compliance.
He said the officer who was monitoring the program had seen compliance from the bars.
However, Koss still said in the end, the bars could only do so much, and the responsibility for the problems downtown ultimately rests with the individuals who cause them. He cited a continuous string of issues with vandalism and theft on Water street, which he said was mainly due to the foot traffic of intoxicated people in the area.
“Through education and good choices, a lot of our student population does not drink and drive, but through those travel corridors, we see a lot of vandalism and theft,” Koss said. “It coincides with foot traffic on those nights, and I don’t think you can hang this around the necks of the bars.”
He explained that although the offenses are mainly misdemeanors, they do cause issues for residents. They also cost taxpayers, in some cases. One issue they deal with is intoxicated people pulling up street signs and the city having to spend money to put them back.
“If people decide to get rip drunk and start a fight, there’s only so much the bars can do,” Koss said. “We are all responsible for our own actions.
Koss stressed the importance of individuals choosing to avoid the destructive acts that have been a problem, but also said that a collaborative effort could be a good thing.
