COEUR d’ALENE — Last call’s back to last year’s.

On Monday, the city’s General Services Committee recommended the City Council restore its old curfew and give bar owners back that hour.

Should bars violate the new and old 11 p.m. curfew by having outdoor drinking past cutoff, they could lose their outdoor seating permits.

To recover them, owners would have to go before the Coeur d’Alene City Council and ask for them back.

“It wasn’t hard to police, it was just an hour change,” said Jerry Goggin, owner of the Beacon Pub and Icon bar, about adhering to the 10 p.m. outdoor cutoff implemented last year after City Hall had received complaints on alcohol-related behavior downtown. “We’re starting the fourth year of the worst economy in 100 years, so anything the city can do to make it easier through these tough times, we’re in favor of.”

The change was a part of several tweaks put in before the summer, including increased police patrols, and making sure businesses keep their store fronts clean as well as their tables from zig-zagging too far out on the sidewalk.

“I support this motion,” said Mike Kennedy, city councilman and GSC chairman. “I think we’ll have a little push back from the owners.”

Besides the various complaints to City Hall, officials met after a Dec. 27, 2009, shooting downtown to begin looking at cracking down on downtown problems. The changes are city wide, but the focus remains in the city’s core.

“The police presence and the foot patrols made a tremendous difference,” said Teresa Capone, owner of Capone’s on Fourth Street, on those changes.

“I wasn’t a fan of the 10 o’clock change at all,” she added. “The nights are so beautiful here.”

First violations will be warnings. After that, owners will have to go before the General Services Committee, a council commission, which will schedule it on the City Council agenda. The council meets the first and third Tuesday of every month.

The change, should it go through, would be through next summer before officials review it again. It goes before the City Council at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 19 in the Community Room of the public library.