Powell bars will likely be allowed to stay open an extra hour-and-a-half for the Halloween and New Year’s Eve holidays. 

On Tuesday night, the council gave initial approval to an ordinance that would let the city’s bars serve alcohol until 3 a.m. — rather than the usual 2 a.m. cutoff — for two nights per year. The establishments would also have until 4 a.m. to get all customers out of the building, instead of the typical 2:30 a.m. deadline.

The change was proposed as a way to discourage patrons from traveling to out-of-town bars that are open later.

K-Bar Saloon owner Amy Cozzens said that when her establishment closed last Halloween and New Year’s, a large group of her customers headed to the Byron Bar, which was open until 6 a.m. By keeping the K-Bar open, Cozzens hopes intoxicated patrons will opt to get a ride from one of her complimentary designated drivers instead of driving themselves 15 miles to Byron (and back). The additional time to get all of the customers out of the bar, she added, will provide more of an opportunity to have people sober up and to safely shuttle them home.

“It’s not about making extra money. It is about the safety of our customers,” Cozzens explained at a June 5 council meeting, adding, “We’re like a family there. We don’t want anything to happen.”

She pitched the council on the idea in April and returned this month with signatures of support from other downtown bar owners. Everyone seemed on board with allowing later hours, Cozzens said, though “a lot of them laughed because they said they’d never do it.” She previously predicted that only the K-Bar and the Red Zone would take advantage of the extended hours of operations.

Cozzens initially suggested serving alcohol until 3:30 a.m., but she said this month that she’d prefer a 3 a.m. cutoff, to allow more time for sobering up and arranging safe rides.

“I could handle 3 [a.m.] a lot easier than I could 3:30,” Mayor John Wetzel said, to agreement from Councilwoman Lesli Spencer.

Meanwhile, Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt doesn’t think the additional hour of serving alcohol for two nights a year will have a big impact.

“My only reservation was the slippery slope of opening the door: What happens next year? Is it four holidays [with extended hours]?” Eckerdt said. “We went too long where we had the 24-hour bar nights, four times a year, and we dealt with all the issues and ramifications of dealing with that.”

He called the two-night, one-extra hour proposal “definitely a good compromise to see how it works.”

Cozzens told the council she would be fine with abandoning the idea if it doesn’t dissuade customers from driving to other bars.

“If it makes you feel any better, no one wants the all-nighters back,” she added. “We don’t want to go till 7 [a.m.] ever again. I mean, that was just awful. … I would never do that to my staff.”

The way the ordinance is written, the council can — but is not obligated to — pick two holidays per year where an extra hour of service is allowed.

The ordinance must pass two more readings before becoming a part of city code.