County council abandons forced 2 a.m. closing time for bars

A proposed rule requiring bars to close at 2 a.m. was put on hold Tuesday night after county council members received complaints from business owners that their late-night customers were mostly service industry locals who were just getting off work, not tourists on a day-long drinking binge.

Instead of passing the second reading of the ordinance, the Horry County Council decided their idea needed to be explored a little further and sent the proposal back to the planning commission to rework the proposals.

“It needs to go in the garbage can,” said Councilman Harold Worley.

The council initially voted unanimously last month to pass the rule on the first reading, and again voted unanimously Tuesday to table the ordinance.

Instead, council members said they will look at reworking nuisance rules that would give them the authority to crack down on businesses that are a problem, without forcing all businesses to close early.

“It looked like we were overbearing on individuals that were operating within the law, and putting more government restrictions on businesses,” said Mark Lazarus, Horry County Council chairman.

The council intended that the ordinance would be used to cut down on crime, but said they have since learned that the proposed rule would instead affect mostly locals and numerous businesses, including bowling alleys and 24-hour restaurants that serve alcohol.

“Our hospitality industry people who do work late like to have a cold one before they leave,” Lazarus said.

The new rules would have required bars to stop serving alcohol in time to close the doors by 2 a.m., which would have affected numerous businesses in the county jurisdiction that stay open and cater to locals as late as 4 a.m.

“The government is already accused of overreaching,” said Councilman Johnny Vaught. “My feeling is that we have laws on the books to cover this. I don’t see the sense in penalizing good law-abiding businesses by throwing out this blanket ordinances.”

This story was originally published June 7, 2016 at 8:54 PM with the headline "County council abandons forced 2 a.m. closing time for bars."