Utah to abolish private club law

Utah to abolish private club law
New law brings new restrictions, mixed feelings

By Derek Taylor

For decades, travel to Utah’s ski resorts carried two promises: great snow and weird liquor laws. The stigma often caused skiers who wanted nightlife with their powder turns to look elsewhere when planning their winter trips. The perceived effect was so great that Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. made “normalization” of Utah’s liquor policy one of his pre-session priorities.

On March 9, 2009, Huntsman, the mostly conservative Mormon state legislature, and the Church of Latter Day Saints reached a landmark deal to eliminate the private club law in Utah. The old law, still in effect until July 1, 2009, stated that bars and drinking establishments must operated as private clubs open only to members and guests. Member names were kept on file at the establishment, and they were allowed to “sponsor” a select number of guests. Out of town visitors could buy a temporary membership, usually between $5 and $10, effectively making it easier to enter a pub in Utah than it is to go into a bar with a cover charge in other states.

Under the new deal, bars in Utah will no longer require memberships. Instead, all bars will be required to scan the IDs of anyone under age 35. The information will be help at the establishment for seven days, and can be accessed by law enforcement to help in the investigation of alcohol related crimes. The change also will bring stiffer penalties for drinking and driving, and increase the liability of bars in drunk driving accidents.

The law has been met with mixed feelings among ski town bartenders. On one hand, it eliminates awkward conversations about Utah’s arcane liquor practices. On the other, it institutes what some see as even more intrusive rules.

“I’m very excited just for the normalcy of it,” says Dan Whithey, bartender at Alta’s Sitzmark Club. “Inevitably we have to explain these laws. It’ll be nice to be able to quell some of those conversations. [But] it seems they always have to make it weird a little bit.”

“I think it’s a political thing,” adds Brant Moles, who tends bar down the street at the Peruvian Lodge. “There’s going to be a stigma that might be alleviated, but the reality is now they’re scanning. I think it’s worse. It’s more Big Brother. But for us, it saves us a lot of time, and if the stigma is lifted from Utah, maybe that will be better for tourism.” Utah’s tourism industry is currently worth an estimated $6 billon, according to the Salt Lake Tribute.

Under the new laws, Utah will become the only state in the U.S. to mandate the scanning of ID cards. Still, not everyone is happy with the changes. “We are moving from private clubs to open bars, and they’re a major source of DUIs around the country,” Art Brown, president of the Utah Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said in the Tribune. He equates the new law to “helping someone load a gun, taking off the safety and shoving them out the door.”

As of 2006, the most recent year Powder could find records for, Utah led the nation in the lowest percentage of auto accident fatalities attributed to drivers over the legal limit of .08 Blood-Alcohol Content, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration figures.