Starting Monday, all bars will be reopened at 50% occupancy

Friday, Historic City News received word from the state board responsible for regulation of sales of alcoholic beverages in Florida, that the Department of Business and Professional Regulation is rescinding Emergency Order 2020-09, as amended, effective Monday, September 14, 2020.  At that time, all bars will be reopened at 50% occupancy.

To the chagrin of bar and restaurant operators statewide during the ramp-up week to Independence Day, July 4th, the Department announced that in response to an increase in the number of individuals testing positive for COVID-19 at that time, effective July l, 2020, the state was suspending the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises of certain licensed vendors.

“The timely execution of the mitigation, response, and recovery aspects of the State’s emergency management plan, as it relates to COVID-19, is negatively impacted by the continued operation of the Department’s Emergency Order 2020-09, as amended,” reported Halsey Beshears, Secretary of Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation.  “Now, therefore, I order that Emergency Order 2020-09, as amended, is hereby rescinded.”

Responses to the news in St Augustine this weekend are mixed; with some downtown residents expressing concern that the City will revert to late-night liquor sales, attracting the “wrong element”, while investors in those establishments are thankful for any relief.

Now that the historic 1879 memorial has been removed from the Plaza de la Constitution, commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline will have some time to return to her temperance movement in St Augustine.