Unlimited drink specials have officially dried up in Ames.

The prohibition of unlimited drink specials, which for the past few months was referred to as “the proposed drinking ban,” became City Ordinance 3702 at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. It will take a few days, and publication, before the ordinance becomes law.

Government of the Student Body President T.J. Schneider cautiously approved the drinking ban.

“Hopefully [the ordinance] will be beneficial and reduce binge drinking,” he said. “However, this hasn’t been the case in Iowa City, which has a similar ban.”

Schneider said the students’ viewpoint, a majority of which was that binge drinking at house parties would increase due to the ordinance, was valid. He also said the city’s view, which was that the ban would make the statement that Ames doesn’t support binge drinking, was equally valid.

However, Schneider said the city wasn’t thorough enough in their research on binge drinking prior to taking action.

“Hopefully they’ll do their research before they push for more restrictions,” he said.

Council member Russ Cross agreed that more research was necessary before any additional restrictions are placed on binge drinking.

“At this point, I think we’ve gone far enough with limiting drink specials,” he said. “Our current restrictions are a potential solution [to binge drinking], but we don’t know if it’s the final solution because we’re not sure where the problem originates.”

Mayor Ted Tedesco said he wasn’t comfortable with the government controlling anything that individuals could decide for themselves — namely bar owners determining how much alcohol a person should have.

However, Tedesco said the ordinance is necessary because the “operators of drinking establishments haven’t proven fit to police themselves.”

“If the bar owners were responsible, we wouldn’t have this [binge drinking] problem,” Tedesco said. “The bar owners said they stopped patrons at a point, but apparently they haven’t.”

In addition, he said binge drinking was a public health issue and “the council felt responsible to act.”

Mike Banasiak, director of governmental relations, was appointed by Schneider as student liaison to the city council. Schneider said Banasiak, a GSB presidential candidate, will serve ISU students well during his interim appointment because of his knowledge regarding university functions and his experience working with local and state governments.

“I look very forward to having this unprecedented opportunity to enhance relations between the university and the city,” Banasiak said. He will join the council at its next meeting, March 25.

The position, inspired by and modeled after a student-liaison position on the College Park, Md. City Council, has been discussed on and off for the past two years.

However, a recent press for action has occurred due to an increase in the number of city issues, such as over-occupancy enforcement and the again proposed “couch ordinance,” which directly affect students.

The ordinance, originally proposed last spring, has been extended to include all housing units in Ames.