Newport City Council met for approximately three hours and twenty minutes last night. Here’s a quick recap.
An entertainment license location expansion for Gurney’s Newport Resort & Marina and an entertainment license hour expansion for @ The Deck were the items that took up the most time, and also saw the most people speak up.
Both expansions were denied, with the exception of one event
(an invite-only event for the Pell Bridge 50th Anniversary Celebration taking place from 10 am to 12 pm on Friday, June 28th) that was approved 4-3.
Seven other event applications, and an overall entertainment expansion application, from Gurney’s were denied by the Council, as well as an application for @ The Deck to expand their live music inside their restaurant from 12 pm to 1 am.
Gurney’s will likely come back before the council with an application to host those events, that entertainment on the South Lawn of their property.
After some discussion on how they would measure goals and success of a temporary closure of Courthouse Street to simulate the proposal of the Newport Spring Project, Council voted 7-0 to move forward with the resolution. The plan will close off Courthouse Street and simulate what Newport Spring Project hopes will be permanent. That is expected to begin around August 1st, according to City Manager Joe Nicholson and will continue until September 30th.
Here’s the agenda for the meeting. Watch the entire meeting below, courtesy of the City of Newport’s video.