A proposal to extend local bar hours is open for public inspection following council approval Tuesday night.

An ordinance permitting Charleston bars to remain open until 2 a.m. on weekends with a 1:45 a.m. final serving time was placed on file until the Tuesday, Dec. 2 meeting.

The ordinance came in response to an Eastern Student Senate resolution requesting bar hours be extended as means of reducing after-hour house parties, limiting student travel to Champaign where bars remain open and promoting drinking in a controlled environment.

“I very much appreciate the Student Senate’s work with administrators, working with the city to try to address the real problem, which is inappropriate behavior,” Mayor Dan Cougill said.

The ordinance specifies self-termination at midnight June 30, though City Attorney Brian Bower said council has the power to reinstate earlier hours at any time found necessary.

Council member Lorelei Sims voiced concerns that a time extension would not solve the issues introduced in the Senate resolution.

She said other communities’ residents may drive here for the additional hour and that residents here under 21-years-old will continue participating in house parties because they cannot get into the bars.

“It’s not that I don’t support 1:00 a.m. on Friday’s and Saturday’s,” she said. “I think there are better ways to reduce concerns.”

“A 19 bar entry age will address everything you’ve got here better,” Sims said despite the threat of “opening up another can of worms.”

Council voted in favor of filing the ordinance to be voted on next meeting.

Should the ordinance be approved, it will expire June 30 unless council votes in its favor again.

Cougill said Council will discuss the plan’s successes and failures then and decide whether to make the ordinance permanent.

In other business:

u Council approved an ordinance changing Seventh Street to one-way southbound from Lincoln Avenue to Johnson Avenue in correlation with traffic light movement from Seventh to Ninth Street.

u A settlement agreement with the Charleston Firefighters Union was tabled because Council has not received necessary documents.

u An ordinance amending the city’s comptroller position was was tabled until the Dec. 2 meeting.

u An agreement giving Interim City Manager Scott Smith the official City Manager title was tabled until the next meeting.

u The city’s worker’s compensation insurance bid award was issued to Diamond Brothers of Mattoon. Cougill said they were the lowest bidder at $258,241, approximately $200,000 less than the other two bids received.