The Sioux Falls City Council passed an amendment to allow the Overlook Café in Falls Park to serve alcoholic beverages. Even though seven council members voted in favor of the amendment, it didn’t always have a lot of support.
Council members passed the amendment seven votes to one on Tuesday night at the weekly City Council meeting. The measure allows alcohol to be sold in the Overlook Café but requires it stay on the grounds of which it is sold. The café has both indoor seating and an outside patio area. Councilman Greg Jamison says this is really no different from the laws surrounding any other restaurant. He says even though he was one who voted in favor of it, he wasn’t always on board.
"I was opposed from the beginning but then I kind of felt like well these people want it, let’s give them a chance. They say they’ll do it in a good proper way, be good stewards of it so let’s give them a chance," Councilman Jamison says.
Jamison says the council will reevaluate allowing liquor in a year. He says if the council finds the decision to be more harm then good, it can go back to the way it was. Councilman Kenny Anderson Jr. was the lone vote against the bill. He and opponents who spoke against the amendment say this goes against the city’s goal for keeping citizens healthy.