While “all nighters” are a thing of the past for the City of Powell’s bars, the city council is being asked to let them stay open later on special occasions.

Under current city ordinance, Powell establishments must stop serving drinks at 2 a.m. and have everyone out by 2:30 a.m. They must remain closed until at least until 6 a.m. However, at least a couple bar owners want to extend the closing time by an hour-and-a-half on holidays like Halloween and New Year’s Eve. That would mean cutting off customers at 3:30 a.m. and getting them out of the building by 4 a.m.

At an April 17 meeting, the council appeared open to the idea, but wanted to gather more information and hear from more bar owners before making any changes.

K-Bar Saloon owner Amy Cozzens told councilors that she and The Red Zone might be the only ones to take advantage of the extended hours, but she said the change would help on busy holidays.

With the city’s other bars closing quite a bit earlier, the K-Bar and Red Zone get those establishments’ customers on top of their own, “so it gets pretty packed and busy,” Cozzens said, adding, “when we have these people coming in later at night, it’s harder to get them out.”

On those holidays, she said the bars have designated drivers who offer free rides home. However, “a lot” of patrons choose to continue their night and travel to the still-open Byron Bar when the K-Bar shuts down, she said.

“This last year I noticed there [were] huge groups of people that were like, ‘OK, let’s go to Byron!’ and they all disappeared,” Cozzens recounted. “It's hard to compete with that and get them to stay when they can just go to another bar that’s open — and you know we don’t want them driving out on these little country roads at 2:30 in the morning.”

She suggested staying open until 4 a.m. would likely prevent many of the 15-mile trips from Powell to Byron.

“From bartending the all-nighters for many years, I think 7 [a.m.] is a little ridiculous, to do all night,” Cozzens told the council. “But I feel like till 4 a.m., that's kind of when everyone kind of calms down and drinks some water, eats some food, and then [is] on their way.”

Expanding the hours would require changing the city’s ordinances, which would mean three public hearings and the publication of public notices. When the city revamped its regulations in 2017 they stopped allowing 24 hours of operations on certain days. Mayor John Wetzel recalled holding a special meeting with liquor license holders before setting the current hours “and everybody was OK with it at that point in time.”

He asked Cozzens to return with a list of signatures from the other bar owners, stating that they, too, support the extended holiday hours.

“It's not a legal document or anything, it’s just [to] give us some proof that other people are interested,” Wetzel said.

Councilwoman Lesli Spencer described it as a way to ensure “everybody’s on the same page, so we’re not just doing it for one or two but it is the consensus.”

Past changes to the city’s licensing rules have needed the written support of a majority of all the 14 retail liquor license holders, which include not only the bars but liquor retailers, said City Clerk Tiffany Brando. If the council did extend the operating hours, Brando noted that the license holders remain free to close as early as they want.

Before going forward with the proposal, Spencer also wanted to hear the thoughts of the Powell Police Department about any potential impacts.

Lt. Matt McCaslin told the council that the department would boost staffing for those nights, which would come at some cost. With the department being short-staffed, there “definitely would be overtime that would be incurred,” McCaslin said.

Cozzens suggested the participating bars could purchase a permit to help cover the officers’ extra time, an idea that appealed to City Administrator Zack Thorington.

“If you don’t want to stay open, don’t buy the permit,” Thorington mused.

However, state law only allows licensing authorities to set hours of operation, and does not allow them to issue individual permits for extensions, said City Attorney Sandee Kitchen.

The council indicated it would revisit the issue after seeing the list of bar owners supporting Cozzens’ proposal. With Halloween still six months away, they noted there’s time to make a decision.