Update – 1 p.m. Aug. 1 – Those wine bottles on sale at the silent auction? They’re illegal in Montgomery County. Serving alcohol within 750 feet of a church or school with a one-day license? Also illegal in the county.
Montgomery County councilmembers received an update from the county’s state delegation Tuesday morning regarding laws that state representatives are looking to change in the 2015 General Assembly.
Among those changes are two liquor laws seen as outdated by legislators.
One prohibits wine auctions in the county, prompting Councilmember Hans Riemer to ask, “Does that mean when I go to a silent auction and wines are being sold, that’s illegal?”
Yes, they’re not permitted, said Melanie Wenger, the director of the county’s office of intergovernmental relations, who was at the meeting Tuesday. Montgomery is the only jurisdiction in the state that cannot issue wine auction permits. The state delegation is looking to change the law so nonprofits can legally auction wine at fundraising events, according to a memo Wenger provided to the council before the discussion.
The second law prohibits the county’s Department of Liquor Control from issuing one-day alcohol licenses that will be used within 750 feet of a school or church. The obvious reason for changing this law, according to Wenger, is that 80 percent of one-day license requests come from churches and places of worship.
Riemer said at the meeting that the laws were examples of how outdated some DLC regulations are.
Kathie Durbin, the division chief of licensure, regulation and education, said the DLC recommended the changes to legislators as a way to bring the laws into line with current practices.
"Some of these laws are 80 years old and people don't even know they're laws," Durbin said.
