Jim Rhea

As far as law enforcement was concerned, it was a pretty normal year at Powell’s bars and other liquor-serving establishments.

The Powell Police Department tracks various data tied to those businesses and alcohol consumption — such as compliance with city ordinance, public intoxication and DUIs — and Chief Jim Rhea said the past year was “fairly typical.”

Once again, the department awarded far more positive marks to liquor license holders than negative ones.

“We had several establishments that excelled,” Rhea told the Powell City Council last week.

Blair’s Market, Maverik and the Pit Stop Travel Centers “all did excellent with their alcohol compliance and went above and beyond, contacting us with other issues, such as inebriated patrons,” he said.

Police award a “positive” when businesses reach out to law enforcement about potential problems. For example, the Pit Stop #11 on East Coulter Avenue received a positive mark in March when an employee refused to sell more alcohol to a drunk customer and contacted police. (Officers spoke with the man and he went back to his residence.)

A total 32 positive marks were awarded to the city’s roughly 20 license holders between November 2024 and October. That was up from 10 positive marks in the prior year.

Police also logged three negative encounters, which was up one from last year. Two of the black marks came during routine “alcohol compliance checks,” in which officers send underage individuals into bars, clubs and liquor stores and see if they’re able to buy alcohol.

Employees at both the Red Zone Sports Bar and Grill and Albertsons failed checks conducted in December by selling to the underage purchasers. However, those sales were the exceptions: Overall, staffers across the city refused to sell to the minors in 22 of the 24 checks. Albertsons, for example, passed a second check conducted in May.

The Red Zone received a separate negative mark in May, when officers noticed the bar was open past the mandatory closing time. The bartender reportedly explained to police that he’d stopped selling alcohol at 2 a.m. — as city ordinance requires — but hadn’t known that patrons had to be out by 2:30 a.m.

Rhea said he followed up with the business about the ordinance and hasn’t had any issues since.

The chief said he visited with all of the liquor license holders over the past year and had good conversations. One of the topics of discussion was counterfeit currency, which has periodically shown up at Powell’s bars, grocery stores and gas stations. Rhea said police have been seeing bogus bills in almost every denomination — from $100 all the way down to $5 — that look and feel like real currency. However, he said the fakes can be detected with counterfeit pens.

Rhea said he encouraged the license holders to contact and involve police whenever they catch a counterfeit to help control the spread of the fakes.

The overall number of calls for service at Powell’s license holders increased from 61 to 90 over the past year, but the data indicates much of that jump stemmed from officers conducting additional bar checks.

Across the city’s establishments, only two assaults were logged — half of the prior year’s figure — while the three reported disturbances marked a steep drop from an unusually high count of 11 in 2023-2024.

Following the positive report from police, the Powell City Council voted unanimously to renew the city’s 14 retail liquor licenses, three veterans and fraternal club licenses and a restaurant and microbrewery license.

The council separately approved a new restaurant liquor license for The Hayloft, a new downtown restaurant that’s going into the space formerly occupied by Hickory Street Bistro.