Bismarck, North Dakota News

" alkoppy, I beg to differ with you but, it did pertain to the time difference! Heck, they used to drive from Mandan to New Salem, when there was a time difference! "

" In defence of NO Difference..... It is his/her job to serve the people that come into the bar! I bet if any of you were partying at one time in your life, and the bartender said, "enough Dude, you cannot have another one", you would get T'd off and not go back there again! Most of the time the bartenders will water downt he drinks.... they are drinking pure pop and paying the price of a mixed drink! Yeah, I know, that is not the case if they are drinking a beer.... I know just what you were thinking! The bars ar there to serve drinks... period! That is what they do in a bar! I personally wish that all people would have tow or three and quit but, we all know that will NEEEEVER happen! "

" This is stupid, all you guys are perfect, and dont drink, you must lead very boring lives.
Let the bars be open all night, it isnt fair to the people who work day shifts, night shift people can and do drink all day long, where day shift have to be done by 1. Not fair at all. "

" I agree with "bob", i believe that the whole state should have bars open til 2 am.

And have you ever been to Glen Ulln? its tiny, people would probably go to that bar in the first place and stay there all night. Since there is only 2 bars in the whole town. "

" responding to "no difference" It is your job to serve who? People who have had too much to drink? You said in your first post that you see "plenty of drunk people ready to drive home..." What is more important to you, making that extra dollar for another drink or cutting someone off from getting more alcohol? YOU are the sober one. YOU should be responsible to tell those that have had "enough" that "no I am not serving you any additional alcohol." "

" To Mandanite:

It is my job to serve them. I don't know if they are driving home at the time I am serving them and I am not going to ask each person i give a beer to if they are driving. They can be responsible for their own actions. I will cut a person off if I feel that they have had enough. But sometimes it is even hard to tell that with certian people. Mind your business. You do your job and I will do mine. "

" Comment from an "oldtimer" If I can rightly recollect, the one hour party differential between Bismarck and Mandan was not because of the time zone change. Mandan went on to Central Time in about 1966 or thereabouts. The differential resulted from a midnight Saturday night bar closing time fo Bismarck in the 1970's, which allowed East Bank revelers to zip to Mandan for an extra hour of imbibing. Then, when the bug juice joints closed at 1:00 a.m. in Mandan, the diehards could head to the Prairie Bar south of town or to Hoffman's Bar in St. Anthony for one more hour of legal drinking, because those areas were still on Mountain Time. "

" sober yup lets give the cops one more thing to do. While we are at it lets have the cops walk into bars and test the people inside, because public intoxication is against the law also. Then lets get more cops to test all the kids at school before they are allowed to go to class just incase. "

" Isn't there a bar that stays open later then Mandan bars already? I believe its located in St. Anthony, which is closer than Glen Ullin.
I know a few years back we cruised from Mandan to here at 1A.M. "

" I think it is unfortunate that bar owners and their patrons believe they have the right to drink and drive. If the cops pulled every car over that left a bar most drivers, other than responsible designated, would be legally drunk by ND law.

It really doesn't take much to be legally drunk. Probable cause should be just leaving a bar period.

Of course those of you that drink want your rights protected because you should have more rights than me! The fact is, it is illegal to drive drunk not to cross the center line or swerve a little bit.

If you want to end drunk driving have patrons turn their keys in upon entering and blow in a machine when they leave. If bar owners don't want that, have a cop pick each car up as they leave and test until they get the message.

Of course how would we stay one of the most boozed up states in the nation if we did that. "

" But yeh I agree, having differnt closing times within the area is a very bad idea. "

" Idea:

Maybee Bismarck-Mandan could join the 20th century & have bars close @ 2AM "

" In response to the comment left by "no difference", you said you work in a bar and "see plenty of drunk people ready to go drive home or elsewhere." Why are you serving those people if they are intoxicated? If bar employees would not serve people that have had "enough" to drink, it could reduce the number of drunk drivers on the road. "

" Whether they would have allowed the extra hour or not that is still not going to stop all the drunks that allow themselves to drink and drive from driving home at the end of the night or driving to an after the bar party. So what difference does it make? Working at a bar I see plenty of drunk people getting ready to go drive home or elsewhere at the end of the night. Sad but true. There are not enough cops in Mandan to pull every drunk driver over at the end of the night. So regardless of whether the extra hour was going to be approved or not it still is not going to stop them from driving elsewhere. "

" What is sad about the different times for shutting down bars, is it gives intoxicated people a reason to travel along the highways in search of bars out of town to continue to drink in. (not that it already bad enough that they drive from bar to bar in town). When we lived in Williston many years ago, you could shut down the bars in Williston and 1am and then drive the 17 miles to the state line club on the ND-MT border and drink for 2 more hours...because they (MT) were an hour behind Williston, and they stayed open until 2am...so that 17 mile stretch was treacherous from 1am till 3am. "

" I remember when the bars would close in Bismarck at 1:00 am. But the bars in Mandan got an extra hour becuase we were on MT time. So, all the drunks would come to Mandan. I believe that the Commission was right in turn this down. "

" Having lost 2 cousins to drunk drivers I don't think another hour of drinking is beneficial to the drinkers or the people they might run into. No to a 2PM closing. "

" Well said! Why on earth would we want to have such decisions at a private individual business owner/customer level. We all know that government is much better suited to make ethical and economic decisions for us. We definitely cannot have a free market system see the light of day, imagine how dangerous that would be. I suggest we also look at limiting the hours of farm implement dealerships. Have you seen the stats on farm machinery accidents? If we limit the hours, we could really cut that back. I'm not talking about prohabition of farming, just prohibition during the hours set by our wise government system. "