vanessa.fultz@gaflnews.com



Representatives of Thunder Alley Bowling Center in Live Oak appeared before the city council on Tuesday to ask permission to sell beer and wine coolers on Sundays.

“This is as much a request from some of our customers as it is from us,” said Jeff Stark, one of the owners of Thunder Alley.

Stark said he thinks the business meets city and state requirements for square footage and seating, requirements for the percentage of food and non-alcoholic sales and requirements for serving full-course meals. However, he requested clarification concerning “gray areas” in the regulations.

“We offer appetizers, we offer main courses and we offer desserts, we just don’t serve them on plates with forks and knives. But they are in our opinion full course meals,” Stark said.

Live Oak Fire Chief Chad Croft said the business meets requirements for seating capacity.

“I think there’s still a lot of unanswered questions here,” Live Oak Police Chief Buddy Williams said.

“On Sundays we have to shut down one-fourth of our business,” Stark said. “We feel that shutting down one-fourth of our business on any given day is going to hurt our business.”

Council members said they would research the matter and report back at the next meeting.

City rules allow businesses and clubs licensed to sell alcohol the right to sell alcoholic beverages on Sundays between 1 and 11 p.m. if they derive at least 51 percent of sales from food and non-alcoholic beverages, have 750 square feet of service area and have the capacity to serve 60 persons a full-course meal at one time.

The county ordinance is identical for on-premises sales.