SALEM — The discussion continues on whether to ban sales of single-service “nip” containers of alcohol in Salem, but the proposal continues to get broad support from city councilors.
The Licensing Board continued its hearing on the proposed ban at its Jan. 22 meeting, ultimately continuing it to a meeting scheduled for Feb. 26. In the meantime, officials from several city departments are being invited to weigh in.
Three city councilors spoke in support of the ban — Jeff Cohen in Ward 5, Alice Merkl at-large, and Andy Varela in Ward 7 — while two residents split on the matter last Monday.
“I do have calls out to other municipalities just to see what their experiences are,” Salem City Solicitor Beth Rennard said. “One of the things I’d like to see us do is ask for oral testimony from our Board of Health agent or chairman of the board, and any other municipal departments like public works, police, and recycling.”
Merkl led off the discussion, reading two paragraphs from a 2019 story in the CommonWealth Beacon discussing the perceived effect of a similar pre-COVID ban instituted in Chelsea (bit.ly/3HEpUV7).
“Here in Salem, the driver of the car that seriously injured a pedestrian last October had several what they call ‘nip bottles’ in the vehicle,” she said. “Their small size contributes to drinking and driving, and I’ve also personally seen the bottles in restroom trash cans of our restaurants with bars here, which is problematic and hurts those businesses.
“I do recognize the financial loss for liquor stores,” she continued, “but the benefits to public health and safety, and the environment, I feel are just too great to not take action. I’m hoping if Salem puts this ban in place, that our neighboring cities and towns will do so also.”
Cohen opened by saying his ultimate preference “is that the state pass an expanded bottle bill law. Water bottles, juice bottles, and especially these smaller bottles aren’t included, and that’ll do a lot to the litter.” He also endorsed the positive environmental impact of banning them.
“I really feel we need to look at the big picture,” he said, “and figure out how to go forward from a public health, safety, and environmental aspect.”
Varela also supported the expansion of the bottle bill, but “we don’t know when that’s going to happen. But being — we believe — a leader of our communities here in Salem, I do believe other communities will follow path if Salem enacts a ban when it comes to nips. We need to see if this works and give it a shot.”
Merkl’s comments were followed by Wisteria Street resident Steve Kapantais, who suggested the article from Chelsea provided “causation without correlation,” and that the owners of local liquor stores must be considered.
“We heard from the owners of the liquor stories on what financial impact this will have,” he said. “More importantly, what we heard from owners of the liquor stores… if there’s a problem with litter, they want to be part of the solution. Why would we jump to banning something before we give them that opportunity?”
Kapantais also highlighted the use of single-serve plastics at the recent Frozen Fire Festival in Salem as an example of hypocrisy on the board’s part should a ban go forward.
“How can this board say no to one and then yes to the other?” he said.
Orleans Avenue resident Ana Campos later countered that “we should be looking for more ways to keep being environmentally friendly rather than taking something that isn’t environmentally friendly and using that as a precedent to keep doing other things that are harmful.
“The nips are a problem, and everyone knows it,” she said. “There are Instagram and Facebook accounts called ‘Fireballs of Salem’ because they’re such a pervasive problem. They’re everywhere. It’d be sort of deliberately ignorant to pretend they’re not.”
Prior to the board continuing the discussion, board member Gary Santo highlighted liquor store owners’ previous comments on financial hardship that would be caused by a ban.
“The owners never really quantified the financial impact. There were some broad-based assumptions,” he said. “If I think about what the average sale price of a nip is, it’s hard for me to get my head around that representing anywhere close to the percentages that were being presented to us.
“We’ve heard that thrown around, that it’s going to wreck everyone’s businesses,” Santo continued. “But at such a small price, they must be selling tons of these things for it to be that big of an impact.”
Contact Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.