Auburn News : alcohol

Crowd protests Auburn Village School alcohol policy

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:21:00 GMT

BY GRETYL MACALASTER

Some community members think it should have been a simple decision for the Auburn School Board to reverse its decision on the community use of facilities policy at a meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 10.

But the board wants to take some time to review the policy and decide whether they want to allow alcohol use at Auburn Village School.

Community members have come out in force since the School Board banned any alcohol consumption at the school last spring.

They continued to speak out during a public input session against what they feel was a “kneejerk” decision. Board members agreed to revisit the policy based on the community input, but with some conditions.

Last spring, the board voted to ban alcohol use at Auburn Village School following an incident involving police after a Lions Club dance. A man was arrested after police spotted him in the building. The allegedly intoxicated man is believed to have damaged the building and run from police.

Prior to that, the policy allowed alcohol consumption and sales for certain events on Saturdays after 7 p.m. with a police officer present, and there hadn’t been any other reported problems.

School Board Chairman Elaine Hobbs said the board decided to hold the community input session after receiving a petition with more than 130 signatures asking the board to reconsider.

About 25 people turned out for the meeting. No one spoke in favor of the board’s decision. “It is important that the town have a place we can come together as a community,” resident Nancy Mayland said.

“This is our function hall,” said resident Ernie Allard. Resident Shirley Delacoe said she felt the board’s decision was too quick.

“To be so drastic as to say there can be no functions of that kind ... seems a bit of an overreaction,” she said. “It just doesn’t seem fair.”

Other residents pointed to history, stating that the intent of building the gymnasium was to have a place for the community. The consensus was if it did not open to the community, it would have been turned down,” said resident Al Samson about the decision about 40 years ago to include the gymnasium in the new school.

But some School Board members want to review the policy more carefully. “There are things I would like modified before we reinstate it,” School Board member Kathleen Porter said. She added that “all you can drink until 2 in the morning to me is unreasonable.”

The Lions Club is the primary enactor of the policy holding two large fundraising dances each year at the school. Club president Norm Bouley said the club has taken great strides to make sure their events are safe as well as fun.

The club hires two police officers to be present for the group’s dances, offers van service for people who need a ride home, hires trained bartenders to serve the alcohol, and stops serving alcohol at midnight when the dance ends.

“The community has spoken both through petitions and attendance ... and there was no one who spoke in favor of the decision of the School Board,” Bouley said. “It should be a very simple decision for the school board to reverse their decision. All indicators point that that’s the right thing to do for the community.”

The board voted 3-2 to have a subcommittee revisit the policy and come back to the full board in March with a proposal. Resident Fay Hanscomb will participate in the subcommittee with board members.

Board member Alan Villeneuve voted against the motion, stating that he did not support the board’s original decision and thinks the policy should be reinstated as previously written.

Selectman James Headd said the Board of Selectmen supports the Lions Club and thinks the School Board should reconsider its position.

“Think of the community. The money that we make literally goes right back into the community,” Sean O’Leary, vice president of the Auburn Lions Club said.

School Board prohibits drinking in building at community events

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:00:00 GMT

BY TOBY HENRY

Questions over prohibition of alcohol at Auburn’s only public school continue to be raised after the School Board’s recent decision left one local charity without a place to hold its popular open-bar dances.

On June 10, the Auburn School Board voted 4-1 on a policy revision which bars alcohol from being inside Auburn Village School, mirroring a policy that was set in place years ago regarding cigarette smoking.

Local policy had previously allowed alcohol to be served in the school gymnasium after 7 p.m. on Saturdays if no minors were present at the event.

Norm Bouley, head of the Auburn-Candia Lions Club, said the new policy curtails much of his group’s fundraising endeavors in town, including the openbar dances in the school’s gym, which Bouley said have been taking place for nearly 40 years without incident.

While School Administrative Unit 15 Superintendent Dr. Charles “Phil” Littlefield and School Board Chairman Elaine Hobbs say the prohibition decision has children’s interests at heart, Bouley said the gymnasium -- as Auburn’s only large place for the community to gather -- falls under the jurisdiction of the community at large.

“There’s no negative effect on children if we hold a dance here, with alcohol, on a Saturday night when there’s no children around,” Bouley said on June 12. “A lot of people have been telling us that the gym was built to be used by the community ... and we’re investigating all avenues to regain use of that building.”

The board’s decision comes in the wake of an April incident in which a Manchester resident allegedly fell asleep during an April Lions Club dance and then awoke hours later, believing himself to be locked inside the building. Auburn police say Michael Coakley allegedly ran instead of asking to be let out of the building after being spotted by police, and he was charged with two counts of criminal mischief. His trial is scheduled for Aug. 6.

Although the Lions Club and any other nonprofit group can still use the school’s gymnasium as long as they adhere to the alcohol-free policy, Bouley said alcohol has traditionally been a part of many of the Lions community fundraisers. But during the June 10 meeting, Hobbs and School Board member Robert Hayes said they’d long been thinking about whether or not it is appropriate to have alcohol in the building, and Littlefield later said that he and other school officials need to have a narrow focus when considering the welfare of children.

“This has been a policy that we’ve grappled with as a board for seven years ... and it seems to me that for 39 years, or even 10 years, the philosophy behind alcohol use in a public building is something that does not sit well,” Hayes said. “Alcohol does not belong in a public school.” “I’m an advocate for children -- I have blinders,” Littlefield said. “We don’t teach children how to ‘drink responsibly,’ we teach them about the health issues surrounding alcohol. I don’t believe alcohol and kids mix.”

Ultimately, board member Alan Villeneuve was the only one to speak out against the board’s policy change on June 10, and he branded the move as a “prohibitionist” gesture that did little to recognize the AVS gym as a community center.

“This was put up as a community facility,” he said. “I don’t think (the policy change) tells anyone in our community about the proper place for alcohol ... and I don’t believe that’s the way to go.”

On June 12, Hobbs reiterated her earlier sentiments that the policy change is not a punitive measure toward the Lions or anyone else, stating that it is a “philosophical change” that came about after a consideration of what is in the best interests of children. But Bouley said the children his group provides for -- the Lions have given two pairs of eyeglasses and a Braille reader, among other things, to AVS students in recent years -- may be the ones who lose out in the end.

Without the dances, Bouley said his group’s losses could top $10,000 annually.

“We may have to move things to Manchester, because there’s nothing available in the area, but what we’re looking at right now is if they (the School Board) really do have the right to regulate it,” he said. “We’re going to explore all the avenues.”

Alcohol policy questioned after fundraiser at school

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:14:00 GMT

BY TOBY HENRY

School officials said a vote on prohibition may be in their future following a recent incident involving a man who allegedly fell asleep in the Auburn Village School following a community dance.

As it now stands, Auburn School Board Chairman Elaine Hobbs said the policy allows alcohol to be served in the town’s only school after 7 p.m. on Saturdays when the building is rented out. Hobbs said an alcohol policy has been in place since at least 1990, adding that it may be time to consider an outright ban on alcohol.

The subject of whether or not it is appropriate for alcohol to be served in the building which is used by more than 500 children every day was raised following an April Lions Club fundraising dance. At the event, which had an open bar available to all adults, Manchester resident Michael Coakley reportedly went to sleep at an area near the school stage during the dance and later awoke to find himself alone in the building.

According to court records, Coakley allegedly caused between $100 and $1,000 damage to a door in his attempts to get out of the building. Coakley is scheduled to go to trail in August on two criminal mischief charges. Regardless of the eventual outcome, Hobbs said the incident is a good opportunity to take a close look at whether alcohol should be in a school building.

She said local parents have not lodged any concerns yet to the board in the wake of the incident.

“But it’s really more of a philosophical discussion on the question of: Is it a good idea to have alcohol in a building that is used mostly by children?” she said on May 23. “What would have happened if (Coakley) had been found by a student returning the next morning for recreational basketball? Those are the things we’re thinking about.”

Neither Hobbs nor Norm Bouley, president of the Candia- Auburn Lions Club, the dance host, could ever recall a similar incident like this occurring in the past.

Bouley said his group has a three-decade-long history of using the school, which is one of the only suitable spaces to host dances in Auburn, and he said a prohibition on alcohol would be devastating. “It would cripple us,” Bouley said. “That last event, between the Lions Club and the Breast Cancer Foundation, raised about $4,800 in that one evening. They (the dances) are our major fundraiser.”

Bouley said the open-bar policy is an appropriate one in his opinion because the events are only open to adults and are held at times when no students are scheduled to be in the building.

The club took many precautions to prevent drunken driving and other potentially dangerous situations, he said.

“It was a Saturday night with no children around. We hired an Auburn police detail to supervise, and we also offered a free van for people to ride home in,” he said.

But Hobbs said she “had some reservations” about the alcohol policy several years ago when it was revised, and she said that “times have changed” since then.

“I understand that it is good for them (the Lions Club) to have something local, and they can continue to have dances there - they just can’t serve alcohol,” she said. “Our primary responsibility is to the students who use that school.”

Bouley and the board will discuss the issue at a June 10 meeting.