FRANKLIN, Pa. (EYT) — It appears that festival-goers will be able to purchase beer at the Franklin Blues & BBQ Festival this Father’s Day Weekend.

Despite furious protests from Franklin Councilman James Marshall, the Franklin City Council approved the festival’s request to sell beer in a controlled environment on a 6-1 vote.

“It really bothers me,” Marshall, a retired police officer, told Blues & BBQ representative Doug Volmrich. “I don’t like the idea of police officers (the Fraternal Order of Police, FOP for short, will be in charge of the sales) selling beer. It doesn’t look good. I don’t think it is appropriate.”

Marshall also expressed concern about local businesses that serve alcohol having their profits impacted by the selling of beer at the festival.

But Volmrich and FOP representative Mark Baughman explained to the council that their plan was well-thought out and had a history behind it.

Baughman said that the FOP had been part of beer sales at the Smoke on the Allegheny from 2005 through 2008 and had very little in the way of issues.

The plan for the Blues & BBQ Festival would be to sell beer in two 20×40 tents that had a controlled entrance and an exit that would be the same. No one under the age of 21 would be permitted in the tents and draft beer would be served in either 12 or 16-ounce cups. The beer would not be permitted to be taken from the designated “beer garden” area.

The FOP recently voted on the plan at its January meeting with the vote being 27 in favor of selling the beer and one, Marshall, opposed to selling the beer.

“We probably won’t have it manned by an active police officer,” Baughman said. “Over half, almost two-thirds of our membership is retired. We would like to have a minimum of six people on duty at all times, all retired police officers, and I would be there the entire time unless there was some kind of health emergency.”

According to Baughman, everyone selling beer would have to be RAMP certified by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board — there is an online test that people can take — so that they can be trained on things like knowing when someone has had too much to drink and needs to be cut off and how to spot fake IDs.

Baughman pointed out that many of Franklin’s sister cities including Oil City, Titusville and Meadville have festivals where beer is sold.

Councilman James Johnson asked if it was possible to have the sale limited to a specific number per person, say two.

Volmrich said planning hadn’t reached that point yet because he wasn’t sure if the council was going to approve the request.

It was noted that the FOP would need to acquire a special permit to sell the beer and that process could take 60 to 90 days and had to be completed 30 days prior to the event, so by mid-May.

Franklin City Manager Tracey Jamieson expressed concern about the plan saying that it could open up other events in the city to alcohol sales.

Deputy Mayor Donna Fletcher, joining the meeting from Florida via video, asked solicitor Brian Spaid if he believed the city would be setting a precedent if it approved the request.

Spaid said he believed no precedent would be set and each organization wishing to sell alcohol would have to go through the same process that the Blues & BBQ Festival was going through.

Councilman Sam Lyons then made a motion to approve the sale of beer at the festival, and Councilman Mike Dulaney seconded the motion.

Lyons, Dunlaney, Fletch, Johnson, Fred Mays and mayor Doug Baker all voted to approve the motion with Marshall voting against it.

“I hope we, as a city, don’t feel the repercussions of this,” Marshall said. “Legally maybe not, but morally, yes.”

While the council has approved the selling of beer, Jamieson still needs to allow the consumption of the beer at the festival because it would be in violation of the city’s open container ordinance. Spaid said he believes that Jamieson will follow the wishes of the council and allow it.

COUNCIL APPROVES OVERHEAD GARAGE DOOR FOR TRAILS TO ALES PUB

The Council approved an overhead garage door for the Trails to Ales Pub on 1270 Liberty Street; however, it wasn’t the exact design the Pub was hoping for.

Jasen Fry, representing Trails to Ales, gave the council a photo drawing of a proposal to have the overhead garage door be 18 inches higher than the design approved by the Franklin Historical Architectural Review Board (HARB).

But Dianne Hall, speaking on behalf of HARB, said most members of HARB preferred the lower door and that representatives from Trails to Ales said they could live with the lower door.

In a roll call vote, the council accepted the HARB recommendations 5-2 with Johnson, Lyons, Baker, Marshall, and Fletcher voting for the recommendation of HARB and Dulaney and Mays voting against it.

WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL TO BE MOVED TO AREA OF OTHER MEMORIALS

C. Robert Bowen from the Franklin Commission to Remember Our Heroes asked for the council’s approval to have a tree removed from near the Vietnam Memorial and First Responders Memorial so that the World War II Memorial could be moved to that location as well.

Bowen said that a new World War II Memorial would be commissioned out of granite with the goal of dedicating it on Sept. 2, 2020, which would be the 75th anniversary of the official end of World War II.

He also said that the names on the memorial would be checked to make sure that the original intent of the memorial to honor World War II Veterans of the City of Franklin was upheld.

According to Bowen, there are possible names on the current Memorial of people who weren’t from Franklin and that there are also a couple of instances where names are duplicated and even one instance of a triplicated name. He said there are 2,117 names on the memorial now and the new design would have room for up to 2,300.

Marshall said his only concern was that if a name was removed that the family of that person would complain.

The council voted to approve the removal of the tree so that the memorial could be placed with the other memorials.

OTHER BUSINESS

In other business the council:

Approved a request to the Venango County Land Bank to have three properties — 529 ½ 3rd Street, 623 Hillside Avenue and 313 Erie Street removed.

Granted a request for the Memorial Day Parade.

Sold the retired K9 officer MAL to his handler, police chief Kevin Anundson for $1. A discussion will take place in the near future on replacing MAL, who retired after 12 years on the job.

Approved the extension of contracts for electricity and natural gas. The electric contract wasn’t due to expire until 2020, but by extending it now, the city can save money by locking in lower rates. The natural gas contract was due to expire at the end of the year. Both contracts are now extended through the end of 2024.

Was told by Jamieson that information regarding the 13th Street (Route 322) Railroad Crossing is available in the lobby of the City Building for anyone interested. The project will take place during the Summer of 2018 (dates still to be determined) and that for approximately a week the two-month project will require a detour with separate car and truck detours. The car detour will be 3.5 miles long and utilize Route 417, Route 4002 and Route 62 and the truck detour will be 28.2 miles long and utilize Route 417, Route 8 and Route 62. The score of the work for the project involves raising the existing track approximately 10 inches, and the adjacent roadway profile will be adjusted to meet the new track elevation. Traffic signals in the project area will also be replaced.