New criteria for beer permits and liquor license renewals are now in place for Ames bars, as a result of the City Council meeting Tuesday evening.

New considerations will be monitored during the 12-month renewal period. This includes the number of fire code violations, such as over-occupancy, number of citations issued and arrests made and level of cooperation between bar managers and police. It also includes the number of bar employees attending monthly police ID training, nuisance calls in and around the bar that were not called in, and the number of fake, altered or loaned IDs obtained by bar employees.

“We want to get involved with any issues as early as possible,” said Ames Police Investigations Cmdr. James Robinson.

Additionally, quarterly meetings will be held throughout the next year between bar owners and managers and police personnel to discuss trends, problems, degree of cooperation and other issues regarding liquor-licensed establishments.

Lieutenant Geoff Huff, who will assume the night shift management position as of Jan. 1, 2007, will coordinate these meetings for the next two years. Huff will also address specific bar incidents as they occur.

“I just want to compliment you,” said 1st Ward Councilman Dan Rice to Ames Police Department representatives.

“This is wonderful to come up with this kind of criteria.”

The additional criteria were decided on by the criteria team, who met Oct. 26 and 31.

“I thought it was a good exchange of information,” said Ames Police Chief Loras Jaeger. “It was very effective.”

Jaeger reviewed the criteria put together by the renewal criteria team and discussion indicated that these criteria provided support that would strengthen a decision to deny renewals.

“This is exactly the kind of thing we hoped to get,” said Councilman Matthew Goodman.

Present at the meeting were representatives of the Ames Police, including Jaeger; several managers and owners of Ames bars; Lauri Dusselier of the Thielen Student Health Center; Chris Perrin, paramedic supervisor at Mary Greeley Medical Center; and Craig Buske, ISU student and ex-officio member of the Ames City Council.