CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — The Clarksburg City Council will hear a first reading tonight of an ordinance amending their home rule application to include amending the start of Sunday alcohol sales time as authorized by the West Virginia State Legislature earlier this year.
Known as “The Brunch Bill,” or S.B. 298, it permits for counties or authorized Home Rule cities in the program to enact ordinances that permit moving the start-time for alcohol sales from 1 pm to 10 am.
Clarksburg was one of six cities authorized to proceed with the change by the Home Rule Advisory Board earlier this month. Clarksburg Mayor Cathy Goings said it was the obvious choice and that the amendment as voted on by Council when changing their Home Rule application passed Council unanimously.
“It was voted on unanimously to amend the Home Rule plan,” she said. “So I would imagine it would be unanimous to approve the ordinance to allow such to go into effect.”
Goings said she anticipates a similar county-wide move.
“It is my understanding that the County is going to put that up for vote at the November election,” she said.
Because of Clarksburg’s status as a Home Rule city, they will face no consequences should a county-wide vote fail to pick up the necessary votes to adopt the change.
“The nice thing about it is that going ahead and doing it as a municipality, in the event it didn’t pass, we would still be under the Brunch Bill,” she said.
In the meantime though, she anticipates the final version of the ordinance to give Clarksburg businesses an extra added leg up on Sundays–and an extra advantage for new businesses looking for a place to open.
“I would think that being able to serve alcohol at 10 am in the morning for brunch would be an advantage for us versus the other cities that might not have the brunch bill,” she said.
“Now by opening at 10, they can offer that as something different for their patrons.”
Goings said feedback from business owners has been strong thus far.
“You actually make more money from liquor sales than you do from food sales in most cases,” she said. “This will now allow those businesses–a lot of them may not have opened until noon.”
Goings also expects it to help the local hotels.
Clarksburg City Council begins at 7 pm.