Informal comments will be received Friday before Vicksburg officials vote to lift restrictions on sales of beer and light wine enacted two years ago.

If you go

Vicksburg officials will accept comments before they vote to restore 24-hour beer sales and sales from ice chests in stores. The meeting will begin at 10 a.m. Friday in room 109 of the City Hall Annex, 1415 Walnut St.

Last fall, Mayor Paul Winfield said he would set a public hearing on the 2008 beer ordinance, which:

• Banned sales of beer singles from ice chests usually at the front of convenience stores, and

• Banned sales between the hours of 2 and 7 a.m. Monday through Saturday, and 2 and 11 a.m. Sundays.

Monday, Winfield said a formal hearing is not required to eliminate an existing ordinance, but he said people may speak before the board vote.

“People are going to show up for this,” Winfield said, “and I’ve always been inclined to allow people to speak even though it’s not a legal requirement.” The ordinance was approved unanimously by the mayor and aldermen under former Mayor Laurence Leyens at the request of former Police Chief Tommy Moffett and former Deputy Chief Richard O’Bannon. The former chiefs presented 2007 statistics that linked late-night drinking and loitering to an increase in crimes such as DUIs, fights and homicides.

Winfield, who took office in July, has maintained those statistics do not truly reflect the relation between late night beer sales and violent crime. He said it is a store owner’s responsibility to maintain order at a business, and said better control of loitering in parking lots would do more to curb crime than the sales restrictions. Winfield also maintains the city is losing much-needed sales tax revenue to the county and Louisiana, where beer and light wine can be purchased all day, every day.

South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman and North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield were both in office and favored the restrictions. Beauman said he still does. That leaves Mayfield to cast the deciding vote on the three-member board. Action could have been taken Monday, but Mayfield asked for time.

“I’ve still got a lot of concerns about this, and I just didn’t want to do it today,” Mayfield said.

Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com