ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
It was another quick night for the Liberal City Commission during its most recent meeting Tuesday evening.
The first of the two items of new business for the commission was discussion of Ordinance 4618 concerning modifying the hours of cereal malt beverage sales on Sundays. The ordinance amends Chapter 3, Article 1, Section 3-113 of the City of Liberal Code Book to modify the hours of sale for cereal malt beverages (CMBs) on Sundays.
“The city’s current ordinance doesn’t allow alcohol sales until noon on Sundays, and the country club and municipal golf course lose out on quite a bit of revenue, especially on tournament days since the tournaments start significantly earlier than that,” Liberal City Manager Rusty Varnado said. “And it’s not just on tournament days, but every Sunday, we’re losing sales and revenue, so we would like to request a change to the ordinance in order to allow sales to begin at 9 a.m. in accordance with state law. That would be the only change, there wouldn’t be any changes to the holidays or the actual days or the ability to sell hard liquor or wine during the other hours already allowed. This is just for the CMB.”
“And this is now in line with the state statute, and like Rusty said, you could expand this to include alcohol sales, but the intention behind this is to allow the golf courses to sell on Sunday mornings when they have tournaments and all of that,” City Attorney Lynn Koehn added. “That’s why this was written just to allow CMB. You could allow liquor sales pursuant to state law as well, but you can’t expand beyond the hours listed.”
Ultimately, the commission voted unanimously to approve the resolution.
“WHEREAS, the sale of cereal malt beverages on Sundays is currently allowed within the City of Liberal, from the hours of 12 to 8 p.m.; and WHEREAS, the sale of CMB on Sundays is allowed by state law from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and WHEREAS, the City deems it advisable to allow for the purchase of cereal malt beverages within the same hours allowed by Kansas statute,” the resolution noted. “WHEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED by the Governing Body of the City of Liberal, that Chapter 3, Article I, Section 113(d)(1) of the Liberal Code, is hereby amended to be read as follows: 3-113 (d) No person shall sell at retail cereal malt beverage: (1) In the original package before 9 a.m. or after 8 p.m. on Sundays. This ordinance shall take effect 61 days after final publication, unless a sufficient petition for a referendum is filed, requiring a referendum to be held on the ordinance as provided in K.S.A. 41-2911, in which case this ordinance shall become effective upon approval by a majority of the electors voting thereon.”
Concluding the agenda’s new business, the commission approved a request for Clarissa Carrillo be reappointed to serve a second term on the Liberal Memorial Library Board to end July 2028.
