Believing the time has come for Lincoln to allow alcohol in city parks, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board recently voted to seek a change in the city’s longstanding policy.

Next month the parks board will ask the City Council to allow alcohol in some city parks for certain events.

The last time the council was asked to change its policy, in late 1999, the proposal went down in flames, by unanimous vote.

But times are changing, members of the park board said.

“The idea is to bring us up to date a little bit,” said Sue Quambusch, a member of the parks board. “We need to bring ourselves into the 20th century.“

Parks board members said allowing alcohol at certain events would help increase usage of the venues and bring in more revenue for the parks department.

Quambusch said the board has been talking about changing the policy for a couple of years.

It tested the water by allowing alcohol on golf courses in 2003, and that has not caused problems, according to parks Director Lynn Johnson.

Prior to that, alcohol was only allowed in clubhouses and at six tournaments annually.

“A lot of people worried it might turn into a drunken brawl golfing outing,” said the parks board’s chairwoman, Susan Larson-Rodenburg. “I think the parks department has proven itself with the golf courses.”

Then in 2004, the city began allowing alcohol to be served at fundraisers at the Children’s Museum; alcohol was already allowed at zoo fundraisers.

Johnson said the Lincoln Parks Foundation would like to hold formal “wine and cheese” fundraisers at Sunken Gardens and the Rose Garden.

And the board is trying to get more concerts booked at the Pinewood Bowl amphitheater. Johnson said Pinewood Bowl was only booked once last year and twice the year before. The last time it reached its full capacity of about 8,000 was when the Beach Boys played in the late 1980s or early 1990s.

Johnson said the parks board surveyed 10 other cities in the region, and seven of them allow alcohol in parks, to varying degrees.

The parks board vote was unanimous, except for Jonathan Cook, who abstained because he’ll be asked to vote on the issue when it’s before the City Council.

“I’ll try to keep an open mind,” he said. “Maybe things have changed. Maybe the community has become more comfortable with it. I don’t know.”

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.