HARTSVILLE, SC (WBTW) – More than 30 Hartsville community members drove to Columbia Thursday morning for a hearing on the city’s new water park.
Stephanie Stanley is one of 41 valid protesters who does not want the City of Hartsville to obtain a beer and wine permit for the city’s new water park, Neptune Island.
“The City of Hartsville’s application to sell alcohol in the new water park under construction is something we don’t want,” she said. “I want the permit to be denied.”
The City applied for the beer and wine permit in February.
The South Carolina Department of Revenue’s attorney, Dana Krajack said the city would have received the permit had there not been any protesters.
“We look at a number of things,” he told News13. “We call them licensure requirements, and they seemed to have met those.”
Hartsville’s City Manager, Natalie Zeigler, testified at the hearing on Thursday.
Zeigler said alcohol is not the main attraction of the water park, and that there will not be any advertising on the outside gate or on the inside for alcohol.
“The sale of alcohol is a great concern to us in a children’s water park,” said Stanley.
City of Hartsville Attorney, Ken Allen, said alcohol will stop being served an hour prior to closing time. Allen said beer and wine will be sold in different cups than soft drinks.
Allen said there are certain areas for adults to drink alcohol in the park.
“They only have one, fairly small area, designated area for consumption in addition to the cabanas,” he said. “Other than that, people will not be able to walk around with alcohol.”
Stanley said her biggest concern is safety of children.
“The person consuming the alcohol then is impaired from watching their children,” she said. “I’m a 70-year-old grandmother of ten. Thee children, and 10 grand children, and I want to see the best done for children by our government.”
The city said it hopes to hear an answer from the judge on the beer and wine permit by the end of May. The water park will open in June.
