LAFAYETTE, L.a. — After a meeting of both city and parish councils, an introductory ordinance pitched by the Guillory Administration's legal team pertaining to the sale of alcohol on Fat Tuesday has now passed.
According to representatives of the administration, the final adoption will be held at the meeting scheduled for February 1. While meetings are normally held on the first and third Tuesdays of every month, those with LCG said this meeting will be on a Wednesday to accommodate the Mardi Gras holiday scheduling.
The proposed ordinance, which you can read here in full, states that any bar or establishment within the city-parish jurisdiction serving alcohol would close and stop serving at midnight, only to reopen at 6 am on Ash Wednesday.
As per city-parish officials, this is a collaboration between the Guillory Administration and senior officers at Lafayette Police Department that takes a tip from larger cities like New Orleans. The goal of this, they say, is to promote public safety, and leave more time for city workers to clean up after festivities are over, while also costing the city less in overtime pay for officers on duty.
KATC spoke with Lt. Jace Quebedeaux with Lafayette Police Department. He told us that Mardi Gras is a time of near continuous coverage for officers, who often work 16, 17, or 18-hour shifts at a time on the holiday.
"If passed, they get to go home two hours earlier after everything is cleared, and what this also entails is a large Mardi Gras overtime budget," Lt. Quebedeaux said. "It saves the city taxpayers, things of that nature, a lot of money because that's two hours less of overtime pay per officer per assignment, so in the grand scheme of things, it adds up to a large sum of money."
Regardless of what time bars and the like shut down on Mardi Gras Eve, the lieutenant said the police presence will be on the scene in full.
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