Southern View petition to protect The Curve Inn operating hours amasses 900+ signatures in 24 hours; village still votes to cut them

Summary

Board compromises on original plan to cut hours from 3:00 AM down to 1:00 AM, allowing for 2:00 AM closing; petitioners call victory nevertheless

On the evening of Tuesday, October 22, the Southern View Village Board of Trustees voted to eliminate its 3:00 AM liquor serving license, reducing the operating hours of the village’s sole license holder, The Curve Inn – despite a petition urging the village board to reconsider.

The petition to the village board amassed over 900 signatures before Tuesday night’s meeting, a number totaling more than half the population of the Village of Southern View.

Nevertheless, the petitioners do believe the signatures made some impact, as the village board voted to implement an amended measure reducing the 3:00 AM license to 2:00 AM. Following the petition’s closure, Lisa Badger left the following message:

Thanks for all of the support for The Curve Inn. It’s no surprise that everyone loves Ami and Ray! Operating hours were pulled back to 2 am beginning January 1. I am confident that the community support helped the Village to reach this decision. Great work, everyone!

Until now The Curve was one of the last establishments in the area free to operate past 2:00 AM after both the Sangamon County Board and the Springfield City Council voted to kill 3:00 AM liquor licenses earlier this year.

“A decision to reduce its operating hours could have significant detrimental effects, leading to the elimination of 12 valuable positions,” noted petitioner Lisa Badger. “This is not just a hit to the employees and the business, but also to the community that this integral establishment serves. Reduced hours mean reduced business, which in turn diminishes the taxes paid, harming not only a small family owned business, but indirectly impacting public services funded by these taxes.”

Public reactions to the decision have been overall negative. A lone comment left on the Southern View facebook page under the announced agenda for Tuesday night reads, “Focus on the real issues at hand in the village and it sure isn’t because a bar is open til 3am.”

Conservatives at the Sangamon County Board and the Springfield City Council have, for years, pressed for an end to 3:00 AM liquor licenses. The Republican-dominated County Board voted 21-5 in April to end all sale of alcohol after 1:00 AM. The decision resulted in the total closure of two of the four impacted bars under County jurisdiction, with the other two now struggling to remain open.

Despite a promise to wait to consider similar actions until the county’s decision took effect in July, the Springfield City Council chose in early June to vote to eliminate 3:00 AM licenses throughout the City; an amendment allowed the bars to be converted to a new 2:00 AM license rather than the more aggressive 1:00 AM limitation offered by the county, but nevertheless the choice was condemned by late night establishment owners as harmful in ways they argued the City had failed to consider. Proponents cited “safety issues” such as violence outside of 3:00 AM establishments; opposition argued the actual problems at hand related to the unhoused crisis, with persons arrested at late night locations mostly being unhoused members of the communities seeking shelter at establishments or aid from patrons.

The county’s decision took effect in July; the City’s decision will take effect on January 1 2025; and on Tuesday, Southern View’s Village Board followed suit with the City, setting an implementation date for January 1.

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