No Alcohol In Point Pleasant Beach After Midnight? [POLL]

As reported previously, Point Pleasant Beach has been trying to ban the sale of alcohol in the town after midnight, unless establishment's agree to pay a fee per patron. It looks like this could become a reality.

What’s different is the per-person fee and how it’s calculated.

In the new ordinance, the council plans to charge $60 per person based on a business’s occupancy or the occupancy of the space where drinking occurs, whichever is a lower number, Councilman Bret Gordon said.

“We did a lot of homework in the interim and found out $60 is a lot more appropriate for us to provide police for these establishments,” he said.

Every business will also have its occupancy reduced by 200, a compromise considering the businesses do pay taxes and their taxes cover the first 200 people, Gordon said.

So if a business’s maximum occupancy by fire code is 500, but it restricts drinking to a specified area for 300 people after midnight, that business would pay $6,000 (or $60 multiplied by the reduced total of 100) annually to serve up to 2 a.m.

[source: APP]

Point Pleasant Beach officials say this ordinance is in existence because of the overwhelming cost of controlling drunk customers and visitors to the town. Or, is this an easy money maker for the town?