COEUR d’ALENE — The city of Coeur d’Alene will consider cutting back late night sidewalk drinking hours at tonight’s city council meeting.

Last week, the General Services Committee recommended the city curb an hour off the time limit for serving alcohol to sidewalk-sitting patrons, from 11 to 10 p.m.

Now, the city will weigh in on whether that’s an appropriate step to take as officials, law enforcement officers and business owners try to make downtown safer in light of recent alcohol-related incidents.

“Responsible people are responsible whether they’re inside or outside,” said Randy, eating lunch outdoors Monday and who owns a business in Coeur d’Alene, but did not want to give his last name.

“And irresponsible people will act irresponsibly whether they’re indoors or not,” he said.

He said the rule changes might not make much difference even it is implemented.

But city officials said last week it might be time to crack down on some rules as a start, and the outdoor hours cutback is one of several modifications the city will consider.

So full-scale restaurants with sidewalk seating could lose one hour of outdoor serving, while cut off would be 9 p.m. for limited service establishments.

If either type of establishment closes their kitchens before then, they wouldn’t be allowed to serve alcohol outside either.

Other changes include reducing the size and location of outdoor allotments to allow for “small or modest seating areas” on the sidewalks, to prevent tables from zig-zagging too far out.

Another change would be to add more stringent language making businesses clean their frontage by 7 each morning and add a clarifying statement that requires the restaurant applicants to furnish a copy of the menu available for the sidewalk service area and hours that food service is available.

The meeting is at 6 p.m. in the Community Room of the public library.