MOULTRIE, Ga. — How late is too late to serve alcohol?

Moultrie’s city ordinance says midnight, but a local nightclub owner has twice approached the city council seeking later serving hours.

On March 7, Steve Reynolds of the 50-Yard Line asked the council to consider extending serving hours to 1:15 or 1:30 a.m. The council said it would discuss the proposal during an upcoming committee meeting. When he didn’t hear back, Reynolds returned Tuesday night to ask again, but this time his request was voted down.

“We have discussed it,” City Manager Pete Dillard told Reynolds, “and we don’t feel it’s in the best interest of the citizens to extend the hours.”

Reynolds said a midnight serving time was outdated as patrons are now coming out later.

“Our patrons don’t come to the establishment until around 11 o’clock,” he said at the March 7 council meeting. “… The time has changed. Let us change.”

At that meeting, he described house parties — called “kickbacks” — at private homes that go late into the night. He said off-duty Moultrie police officers provide security at his nightclub, but no one provides security at these private parties.

On Tuesday night, he added that surrounding towns allow alcohol to be served until 2 a.m. — even later than what he proposed. He named Valdosta, Tifton and Albany.

Dillard and council members said Moultrie police reports show increasing violence as the night gets later. Serving alcohol later would make fights even more common, Dillard said.

“If they want to shoot each other, knife each other, beat each other up, they can go to Albany to do it,” he said.

Reynolds did not help his case when he said regardless of how late he could serve alcohol, people would continue to drink and when intoxicated would get into fights.

“Alcohol and people don’t mix,” he said — which some at the meeting thought was a strange thing for a nightclub owner to say.

A second concern, voiced by Councilman Daniel Dunn, was drunk driving. Under the current ordinance, a nightclub must stop serving alcohol at midnight, but patrons can stay until 2 a.m. That gives them some time to sober up before they get behind the wheel, Dunn said. Serving later would cut down that time.

As Reynolds pressed the issue, Mayor Bill McIntosh called for a motion on his request. Dunn moved to keep serving hours the same. Councilwoman Wilma Hadley seconded the motion, and the council unanimously agreed.

In other action Tuesday, the council:

• Approved a license to sell beer for on-premises consumption to Johnny J. Toomer, owner of My Place. The nightclub is moving from the former Latino’s building to the former Shooters building, both in Sunset Plaza.

• Voted to try to sell three small parcels of land on Highland Avenue. Two are between Ninth and 10th Streets Southwest and the other is a triangle formed by Highland Avenue, 10th Street and 12th Avenue Southwest.

• Approved the purchase of a frontloader garbage truck at a cost of $245,340 from Wastebuilt of Mableton, Ga. The truck will replace an existing one that is used to empty commercial Dumpsters.

• Learned that removal of garbage can liners is ahead of schedule. The removal began last week, and Dillard said the city had expected to remove 50 liners a week. In the first week, workers removed 112, he said. The in-ground liner system was replaced by roll-out garbage cans late last year. The removal process is expected to take between 18 months and two years.