DRAPER -- A Catholic church's quest to offer beer and wine at its upcoming three-day festival faced little resistance Tuesday as the City Council approved both permits in a precedent-setting case in Draper.

The request from St. John the Baptist Parish was being closely watched by city residents and local news media as a possible test case to signal how stingy the City Council would be when distributing alcohol licenses or permits in the future.Proposed alcohol restrictions divided city residents throughout most of last year, and Tuesday marked the first time Draper's City Council had ever considered issuing single-event alcohol permits.

"It complies with . . . (state) code," said Councilman John Shakula, who made the motion that passed both permits by a 4-1 margin. "The applicant is reputable. The purpose is noble: for charity."

St. John's wants to serve beer and wine as part of its first "Festival of Roses" celebration, an annual fund-raiser scheduled to run from May 19-21.

The event is to help raise money for a new church, since students at St. John's elementary, middle and high school are now forced to hold masses inside their school gymnasium.

Efforts to win a wine permit had been endangered two weeks ago when St. John's officials asked the City Council to accelerate a vote on the matter so they could meet a deadline with the state's liquor board, which also must approve wine permits. The City Council refused to bump forward the vote, prompting speculation among some that St. John's application was doomed to fail.

But such presumptions proved premature and baseless as the state liquor board gave the nod to St. John's application last week on the condition that the Draper City Council give its approval.

The City Council deliberated for 10 minutes Tuesday before awarding the temporary permits. The lone dissenter on the council was Paul McCarty, who told his colleagues: "I urge that we not approve this. The ongoing exposure of alcohol services in front of children is a bad idea."

McCarty wanted the permits denied because St. John's festival will take place in close proximity to a park, a church and a school -- locations usually protected from alcohol-related activities under state law.

Single-event alcohol permits, however, are exempt from the law.

St. John's officials have assured city officials that they will take steps to identify people who might be inebriated at their functions and have sober drivers take them home, as well as verify that all drinkers are 21 or older.

But McCarty predicted that hundreds of people will attend the festival, heightening the risk of a drunk-driving catastrophe that "would jeopardize the parish both financially and legally."

That prompted a response from Councilman Bill Colbert, a nondrinker.

"I hope that thousands of people attend this festival and none of them drink an ounce," Colbert said. "But that's not my decision. I support this."

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Most of the 20 or so residents who attended Tuesday's council session -- none of them uniformed priests or nuns -- seemed to support the council's decision. Matthew McNulty, an attorney for St. John's, said he believed the city would act reasonably.

But the City Council isn't out of the woods yet.

The governing body is in the process of trying to revise the city's alcohol ordinance, including proposals that could prohibit state liquor stores and become more restrictive of how many beer licenses are given to restaurants.

The city of more than 20,000 residents has no bars or taverns.

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