The Ames City Council voted Tuesday night to renew the Boheme Bistro’s liquor license for a year after a recommendation from the Ames Police Department. Boheme Bistro, 2900 West St., along with six bars, had its license renewed during the meeting’s consent agenda. Chief of Police Dennis Ballantine recommended the council renew Boheme’s license. Boheme did not receive a one-year renewal recommendation this summer because it exceeded the new limit of 12 minor violations. Since it exceeded the law by three violations, the council voted to give Boheme a six-month seasonal license. Peter Sherman, the bar’s owner, appealed the decision because he felt he was not informed of the new renewal process. City councilman Herman Quirmbach said before the meeting that people under the age of 21 are not to be drinking, and the council is committed to enforcing the law. “I haven’t specifically looked at the details of their records, but the police gave their recommendation and I’m inclined to accept,” Quirmbach said. “We’re adjusting our enforcement to keep underage drinkers off the premises of bars in Ames. The council is not changing its position on the law.” Chief of Police Dennis Ballantine said Sherman started meeting with his staff three weeks ago to establish the guidelines of the new license-renewal process. Ballantine said he recommended the council renew the license for a year because Sherman was actively involved in creating the new plan for yearly reviews of Ames bars. He also gave People’s Bar and Grill, 2428 Lincoln Way, and Sips, 124 Welch Ave., positive recommendations for the same reasons. “They bought into the new procedure and it would not be fair to deny them licenses since they decided to follow the new criteria,” he said. Ballantine said the new review process is still undergoing revisions, but he will be in contact with each establishment as changes are made. Other establishments will be reviewed as the program grows, he said. “I think it’s a good first step to have the bar owners working with us to try to curtail the underage users of alcohol,” he said. Each bar will receive a monthly status report of alcohol-related violations, and Ames police will be training employees on the third Thursday of each month to detect fake IDs. The Thursday sessions will start next month. Ballantine said he will not heighten police enforcement in each bar, but his officers will be watching certain bars more closely. “We certainly are going to pay attention to the bars with high numbers of underage-drinking violations,” he said. Yearly reviews will be based on the efforts of each bar to reduce the number of violations as opposed to relying on a single violation count. Some issues that will be addressed include training employees to spot fake IDs, continuing to check IDs inside the bar and possibly using video cameras, Ballantine said.