Task force working on recommendations for proposed Tybee container ban

TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (WTOC) - It may be the off-season, but the City of Tybee Island is still working on finding a solution to an issue that has been controversial.

The alcohol task force only has a few more meetings until they must present their thoughts on an open container ban to council.

City Manager Shawn Gillen says more police enforcement has been the main focus of the committee since day one. GIllen says this will definitely be one of the recommendations that’ll be introduced to council when the committee’s 60 days are up.

The members of the alcohol task force have had four meetings so far and only have two more to solidify their recommendations for council in January.

“They’re covering things that they can live with. There’s a lot of ideas that people are throwing out there that just aren’t feasible budgetarily, politically and legally. So, there’s just all sorts of things we can and can’t do,” Gillen said.

Gillen says the reason behind the open container ban and finding ways to control alcohol consumption on the island still stems from the increase in use of force calls the police have had to handle over the years.

“Although we have policemen out of their cars and they’re walking around the downtown area, they want more of that. A more visible and more obvious presence of police,” Gillen said.

Gillen says more enforcement is consistently the biggest take away from the meetings. By Jan. 1, Gillen says the city is raising the police salary to recruit more officers and fill the department’s vacancies.

“At the end of the day it’s going to require police bicycle units, police foot patrols and make a substation out of the old marine science center,” Tybee resident Trey Conners said.

Conners attends all the meetings and says there aren’t that many ideas that they can come up with that are logical. Conners says he feels the only way to curb the issue is to up enforcement.

“It’s no secret that when the police are seen generally crime doesn’t happen,” Conners said.

Gillen says at the next meeting the committee will be focusing on recommendations like raising parking rates and creating control zones where people would have to buy a wristband to drink on the busy weekends to offset the cost of extra police patrols in the more highly populated areas.

“How do you enforce it, who sells the wristbands, how do you do it with thousands and thousands of people down here? So ultimately all the wagons end up circling right back to the enforcement issue,” Conners said.

The committee will have their next meeting on Dec. 29th. Gillen says they will also be hosting a public Zoom meeting before their final recommendation comes out in mid-January.

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