A committee of Suttons Bay Village Council members will continue work on an ordinance that may regulate outdoor food and alcohol service following a discussion by the full council at its regular monthly meeting Monday evening.

Council president Larry Mawby, who also chairs the council’s legislative committee, explained that owners of the Lucky Duck tavern had requested permission to serve alcohol and meals on a porch outdoors, but officials were concerned that no ordinance was in place to limit hours for outdoor service. State laws allow liquor to be served until 2 a.m.

Mawby said restaurant owners appeared comfortable with the idea of cutting off outside service at 10 p.m. to keep neighborhoods quiet late at night. He said the committee was seeking more input and conducting more research on how the ordinance should be drafted.

Village trustee Jackie Freeman said she believed the committee might also take into account whether smoking should be allowed outdoors because those asking for service outside may be trying to avoid smoke from inside restaurants and bars.

“There is no place for non-smokers to gather at night in the village,” Freeman said.

Trustee Bob Johnson said he would support a ban on smoking in all public places in the village, but noted that the question at hand concerned the hours of food and beverage service outdoors.

Mawby explained that he was only seeking informal concurrence from the council before moving ahead with the Legislative Committee to draft an ordinance outlining the hours that outdoor food and alcohol service would be allowed. Village council members agreed by consensus that the committee should move ahead to draft such language.

In other business, the Suttons Bay Village Council:

• Formally appointed trustee Steve Mentzer to serve as the council’s representative on the village Planning Commission, replacing Freeman. Mentzer had served for many years in that position before Freeman was appointed.

• Considered a proposal from representatives of the Port Sutton condominium community that police patrol services be provided on private roads in the neighborhood through a contract with the village Police Department. The village council rejected the proposal based on recommendations from the village police department and the council’s legislative committee.

• Adopted a resolution of appreciation for Suttons Bay Public School students, staff and parents who participated in a cleanup of village parks this spring.

• Endorsed an application for $1,000 in tribal “2-percent” funding from village clerk Dorothy Petroskey, who hopes to send all of the village’s old typewritten documents to a contractor who will scan and “digitize” the documents for electronic storage and safekeeping.

• Authorized village manager Wally Delamater to use a standard “service agreement for contractual services” that Delamater and a village attorney devised to streamline the process of administering contracts with outside agencies and firms.

• Met the new, temporary operator of the village’s wastewater treatment plant, Dave Goen of the engineering firm Gosling-Czubak. The firm is providing Goen’s services to the village until a permanent replacement can be found for licensed treatment plant operator Jeff Boothroyd, who resigned last month.

• Formally accepted an audit report on village finances for the year ended Dec. 31, 2007 that was completed in April. The audit was “clean” and found no material deficiencies in the village’s accounting procedures, according to Mawby.

• Directed treasurer Jerry VanHuystee, bookkeeper Lorrie Devol and clerk Petroskey to present a plan to the council’s Legislative Committee for transferring some or all of the village’s bank accounts to a new financial institution following a recommendation from auditors.