The East Lansing Police Department will not be the only ones regulating the amount of alcohol young adults drink.
Bar and restaurant owners in East Lansing and Lansing have joined to form the Responsible Hospitality Council. The group meets once a month to discuss issues involving their industry and how they can improve community relations.
The council formed last year.
Joe Bell, co-president of the council, said its purpose is to promote safe and responsible drinking in the East Lansing and Lansing areas.
Bell owns The Peanut Barrel Restaurant, 521 E. Grand River Ave.
“I got into this program a while ago when another man and I were discussing issues that bothered us in the industry,” Bell said. “We started a group that became this council.”
The council discusses trying to promote entertainment, food and non-alcoholic beverages as much as alcoholic drinks and training staff and management to handle difficult situations. One way for a bar to get a bad reputation is to promote really inexpensive alcohol and attempt to get people to drink more, Bell said.
“Our industry has been getting along well with the local law enforcement and want to keep it that way.”
Members of the council are not just owners and general managers of bars and restaurants. Members of churches, MSU, the East Lansing Police Department and Olin Health Center participate as well.
Lansing bars and restaurants were also encouraged to join the council.
Doug Johns, owner of The Exchange of Lansing, 314 W. Michigan Ave., said the council will help bars establish better reputations by implementing programs.
Having a member of the East Lansing Police Department in the council will give the bar owners a chance to have questions answered. East Lansing Deputy Chief Tom Wibert, also a member, said the council will help to improve relations between the businesses and police.
“We have the same interests as a committee, which includes following rules and answering questions for each other,” Wibert said. “It is so much easier to work with each other instead of against (each other).”
Councilmember Aengus McIntosh will teach the Training of Intervention Procedures for Servers of Alcohol. The three-hour class teaches servers, doormen, bussers and hostesses how to handle cutting people off, not serving intoxicated people and last call procedures.
McIntosh owns the Harrison Roadhouse, 720 E. Michigan Ave., and the Roadhouse Pub, 122 N. Harrison Ave.
“There is no formal servers’ training required in Michigan,” McIntosh said. “If we have a universal training program, it will keep our customers happy.”
