Evanston City council is scheduled to decide Monday if The Keg of Evanston will be able to serve alcohol until 3 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, and until 2 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday.
The Keg, 810 Grove St., applied for the extended-hours license two weeks ago and would be the first bar in Evanston to take advantage of the new policy.
“It’s about time Evanston started changing their ways when it comes to liquor,” said A.J. Randhava, The Keg’s manager. “It’s long overdue.”
Randhava said his bar could be open until 3 a.m. as soon as May 30. He expects to do extra business at the end of the school year as The Keg will have the latest closing time of any Evanston bar.
The council also will discuss 1800 Club’s application for the same license. The bar, 1800 Sherman Ave., applied for the right to serve drinks during the extended hours two weeks later than The Keg, and its application will not be voted on until June 10.
Opponents of the controversial Ridge Avenue traffic light project will have the chance to voice their disapproval at a public meeting before the council meeting.
The meeting will be hosted by both the Administration and Public Works and Planning and Development committees at 5:30 p.m. at Evanston Civic Center, 2020 Ridge Ave. City Council members were prompted to hold the meeting by community anger over the project, which would replace single-pole lights in the Ridge Historic District with lights suspended from beams.
Residents argued against the project at the Planning and Development Committee meeting May 6 and at a hearing held by the Evanston Preservation Commission on Thursday.
Opponents of the project believe the installation of mast arm, suspended traffic lights would diminish the physical beauty of the district’s tree-lined streets and historic homes.
“I share the strongly held belief that replacing the view of a row of trees with a row of mast-arm traffic lights is unacceptable,” said U.S. Rep Jan Schakowsky, D-Evanston, a resident of the historic district, in a statement read at Thursday’s meeting.
The project is designed to replace the more than 30-year-old traffic lights on Ridge that are not coordinated with each other and are structurally deteriorating, said Keith Fujihara, Evanston deputy director of public works.
The installation of mast-arm traffic lights would make Ridge safer, as they are more visible and have been shown in national studies to reduce accidents, Fujihara said.
But the preservation commission will recommend that the council investigate alternative traffic light projects, such as restoring the existing single-pole lights and coordinating them with a central computer.
Any changes to the current project would be costly and could delay the lighting process by as much as a year, City Manager Roger Crum said.
Funding for the project was approved by the council in 1999. But work did not begin until last month, when the city began laying underground cables for the new light system.
The council could vote at its meeting Monday on any recommendation made by the joint committee, which is composed of all nine aldermen.
Also up for a vote is a proposal to prevent the moving of cars from space to space on the same block in downtown Evanston.
The proposed ordinance is designed to keep employees of downtown businesses from taking key parking away from customers, said David Jennings, Evanston’s director of public works.
Under current laws, drivers can park for only two hours at one parking space but can move their cars to other spots on the same block when their meters expire.
The proposed law would require drivers to cross an intersection on the same street or move to a different street to avoid parking tickets.
Ald. Gene Feldman (9th) said at the Administration and Public Works meeting on May 6 that the ordinance would be difficult to enforce.
Aldermen were unavailable for comment on the issue Sunday night.
