At 11:12 a.m., I received a phone call from the Floyd County Health Department's lead environmental officer (and presumed mastermind behind the department's "beer as food" mantra) Julia Hayes. She said she'd been told to inform me that while the board's decision hadn't yet been issued in writing, and NABC is expected to have a temporary food servers permit for beer pouring at tonight's Bicentennial Park show, we'd not be charged for the permit.
I've explained why the cost of the permit means nothing, but since we remain in an interim period of "somewhat juvenile protest" (Dr. Tom's frothing) with regard to the very notion of temporary food server permits pertaining to the pouring of beer under ATC permits that have statutory primacy ... well, okay. Whatever. There'll be nothing remotely resembling clarity until the board's decision is released in written form. Until then, all is shifting, seemingly by the hour.
What it probably tells us is that Laszlo was right: They're going to try to split the baby in half, by removing the fee and retaining the control. But the issue is control, not money. As long as the department seeks to go places where no regulator has gone before, this isn't over.
NABC's case
Floyd County Health Department's case
ON THE AVENUES: More on the case
I love good theater!
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