The Pierce County Board of County Commissioners met Tuesday morning in special session to discuss alcoholic beverage server training.

The board met with Allen McKay and Liz Bonney, of the Lake Region District Health Unit, to discuss server training for county establishments should they violate compliance checks. Establishments would have their staff trained with an officer in four to six-hour courses, and the training would be good for three years.

Examples of violating compliance checks would include the establishment serving minors, or being open past mandated closing times.

McKay said the district health unit is not making server training mandatory, as they felt that wasn’t the way to go, but also said the county can make it mandatory for establishments it issues licenses to.

Chairman Dave Migler asked what would happen if the county decided to make it mandatory and bar owners said they didn’t want to do server training. McKay said the county could make it so that the issue could affect their licenses.

District 2 Commissioner Mike Christenson asked if the state is requiring server training.

“No,” McKay said. “That would’ve been a little bit easier.”

Bonney said that once establishments complete server training, they should be good to go.

“Nobody is trying to be a bully here,” Bonney said.

The city of Devils Lake passed a server training ordinance. McKay said that before the ordinance was voted on, a Devils Lake establishment was found to have over-served a patron.

District 1 Commissioner Mike Brossart said if the city of Rugby decides server training is a good idea, the county should as well. District 4 Commissioner Duane Johnston concurred.

“This is their (servers) job,” Johnston said. “It’s not like we’re picking on them.”

McKay met with the city of Rugby’s Ordinances/Recreation committee on Wednesday, and plans to meet with the Rugby City Council during their June meeting.

The county issues liquor licenses to the country club at the Rugby Golf Course, the Rugby Eagles aerie; and Larry’s Bar in Selz.

OTHER ACTIONS

The board met with Jessica Tagestad, of Wold Engineering, to discuss bid options for the permanent alternate route project in Hillside Township.

The board approved a transfer of $162 from the 2013 FEMA fund to Antelope Lake township.