Guilford Considers Allowing Alcohol On the Town Green

By Jack Kramer, Correspondent

GUILFORD, CT – Everyone who lives in Guilford seems to agree that one of the jewels of the community in the Town Green. Recently, there has been lots of discussion about whether the town should consider allowing the serving of beer and wine at selected events at the Town Green.

The conversation has been prompted by the a request by the Guilford Art Center, which has asked town officials for permission to serve beer and wine on the Green during its annual Craft Expo scheduled for July 14-16. (To sign up for Guilford breaking news alerts and more, click here.)

At the most recent Board of Selectmen meeting, the selectmen heard a report from Police Chief Jeff Hutchinson about the pros and cons of allowing not just the craft expo, but other events on the Green to allow the serving of alcohol.

The police chief told the selectmen that if it went ahead and approved the serving of alcohol at events on the Town Green, the board should “probably add the costs associated with additional security or monitoring” be paid by the sponsoring organization.

Hutchinson added that additionally any organization that wants, and gets permission to serve liquor, also should probably get state approved certification, specifically in the area of recognizing fake ID’s.

After the selectmen heard the presentation from the police chief, the board decided after a discussion, to refer the Art Center’s request to the towns Green Committee “for its review and input.”

The selectmen’s rationale is that it would be the Green Committee that would in charge of handling all future requests, when and if the alcohol policy is adopted, so it made sense to refer the request to that committee for further review before implementing.