LIQUOR STORES: Council Reverses Itself on Hours

In the last issue of the Corner Forum, Libo Liu reported that the City Council had passed a bill allowing liquor stores to apply to stay open until midnight, rather than 10 p.m. The following is a message left June 3 on my voicemail, in response to an e-mail I sent May 30 to Council members Mendelson, Cropp and Brazil, asking them to change their mind about extending liquor store hours until midnight.

— Marc Borbely, 536 13th St. NE

Good afternoon Mr. Borbely. This is Stephanie Reich in Chairman Cropp's office over at the D.C. City Council. The chairman asked me to call you and let you know she's in receipt of your e-mail regarding the extended hours provision.

She wanted to make you aware that on [June 1] Mr. Evans moved to reconsider the Omnibus Alcohol Beverage legislation and in it moved an amendment to just have extended hours from 10 [p.m.] to 12 for grocery stores — and that is a defined grocery store under the Code, such as the two Fresh Fields and the Giants and the Safeways. Right now there's a total of five of those supermarkets that can stay open now till 12. And with that, it alleviated many of the community concerns about As and Bs being open till 12.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to call me at 724-8032. Thank you. §