Local business owners and employees learned of the problems alcohol can bring to a business in the classroom instead of in person on Tuesday night.
Managers from businesses such as City Tap, The Attic, Falcon Food Mart, Southside 6, Great Scott Community Market and Beckett’s Burger Bar attended the Liquor Establish Employee Training Meeting hosted by the Bowling Green Police Tuesday night to discuss liquor law awareness.
Some of the topics discussed were what to look for when identifying a fake ID, how to handle situations such as fights, dealing with drug use from customers and the effects of alcohol abuse.
Police distributed graphic pictures of deceased bodies for attendees to see the negativity of selling alcohol to people who aren’t in the right state of mind while they are at the bar to get their point across.
Det. Scott Kleiber presented to the attendees and said the training meetings have been hosted for more than 10 years, each year hosting two sessions.
He said the main reason for hosting the training meetings is to educate managers and owners from bars and retail stores and make them aware of the laws dealing with liquor, especially now with the large amount of college students coming back into town for the school year.
“We just want to inform these businesses on what we’re looking for such as fake ID’s and the liquor laws,” Kleiber said. “We want to work with them in order to resolve the issues through training and make it so they can present the violations to the state.”
George Strata, co-owner of Beckett’s Burger Bar, attended the meeting and said it’s important for his business to be aware of new information on compliance issues by going to the training and trying to keep the employees educated on what their obligations are.
“Two of my employees were here tonight and I feel like I should be here,” Strata said. “If they see that I’m here, then they know it’s important to be here too.”
So Shaheen, owner of South Side 6, said it was important for his business to attend the training meeting because he wants to avoid getting into legal trouble for being unaware of the liquor laws simply because they are uneducated.
“We have a responsibility to the community,” Shaheen said. “The meetings are very informative and gives us more information pertaining to what we are actually allowed to serve and there are definitely benefits from knowing that information.”
