The Albert Lea City Council passed a 2 a.m. bar-closing ordinance Monday night, allowing any bar in the city to apply for a license to push closing time back by an hour.

But a lukewarm response to the new law is raising questions about whether the bill, which included a clause that would raise extra money to hire 50 more state troopers, will do what it intended.

Statewide, there is a lack of troopers, and according to Freeborn County Sheriff Mark Harig, it has gotten worse over the past two years.

&uot;They don’t provide 24-hour coverage on the freeway,&uot; he said. &uot;There is a definite need to get more on the road.&uot;

Many times, the county sheriff’s department has to send out its officers to freeway accidents to cover for the regional troopers.

Harig said troopers assigned to the Freeborn County area cover an area that stretches all the way to the Wisconsin border on Interstate 90.

&uot;They are spread really thinly,&uot; he said. &uot;Sometimes motorists have to wait a half hour or an hour for assistance. So we try to fill in when we get those calls.&uot;

When the 2 a.m. bar-closing bill was passed, it was done in conjunction with a guaranteed passage of another bill, which would add the state troopers.

Cities were able to pass ordinances to put the new bar-close hour into effect starting July 1. Since then, just under 300 bars have bought licenses from the state to extend their bar hours.

To fund the 50 extra state troopers, more than 7,000 bars in the state of Minnesota were supposed to belly up and buy the $200-$600 licenses. However, the turnout of less than 300 might be painting a picture of a deal gone bad.

According to Rep. Dan Dorman, R-Albert Lea, who wrote the 2 a.m. bill, the legislation can have the intended effect regardless of how many bars sign up.

&uot;The troopers will be hired regardless,&uot; he said.

Dorman said that $3.5 million from the general fund will be used to hire the troopers, but if more local watering holes don’t take the state up on the later closing time opportunity, it might create another hole in the budget.

Dorman said that with many of the items in a budget, the figures are not exact, and when items exceed or fall short of their projections, adjustments are made.

He said the $3.5 million might not be a large enough figure to make a serious impact on the state deficit.

Rural bar owners like Colin Minehart, owner of the Main Street Bar and Grill in Alden, might represent a trend that went unnoticed when the law was made.

Minehart isn’t sure yet if he will take advantage of the new law.

&uot;It would be a nice option,&uot; he said. &uot;But, basically, it won’t be as big an option for smaller communities. My assumption would be that smaller ones wouldn’t want to pay the fee.&uot;

Minehart testified for the passage of the bill during the last legislative session, as the chairman of the Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association.

He said patience on the bar bill will get many more licenses.

&uot;Some towns were able to get on top of this quickly, like Minneapolis did,&uot; he said. &uot;But for St. Paul, it is taking a little bit longer.&uot;

Dorman said he is glad there will be more troopers on the road, adding that he felt it was &uot;too early to tell&uot; how many more bars would sign on.

(Contact Peter Cox at peter.cox@albertleatribune.com or 379-3439.)