If you party all night, you better watch the clock! The late night bar-tabs on Hilton Head could soon close-out at 2 am… that's if Sheriff PJ Tanner gets his way and the town passes an ordinance.
Right now, the sale of liquor on Hilton Head stops at 2 am, however, beer and wine can pour at all hours. Recent violence in nightclub areas prompted the sheriff to perform a study of the calls received after midnight. He says about half of all late-night calls come in after two o’clock in the morning and he believes putting a halt to all alcohol sales after that hour could reduce the calls and, in turn, prevent crime.
"There's not a lot of good that can come about after two o'clock in the morning,” Beaufort County Sheriff PJ Tanner said. “There's not a lot of good that can come about after 12 o'clock midnight. But, you know, after two, when you've been out drinking and carousing with friends and whatever, I think it's time for everyone to cut the lights out, close the doors, and everyone go home,” he said.
Tanner does not hesitate to say that a lot of these problems stem from one late-night hotspot in particular, Club Life. It's where two shootings took place on the same night last week. In one, a Hardeeville man was shot in the neck.
The sheriff blames a lot of what's happened there on the club itself, which he says is out of control.
"My position is, if you find a cancer, cut it out,” Tanner said. “In this particular situation, the club needs to be out of business. They cannot operate in a civil manner,” he added.
Tanner has talked to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division about steps toward getting Club Life's liquor license revoked but that process could get complicated.
As for an ordinance for 2 am alcohol shutoff, we'll follow it closely and fill you in as it moves forward.
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