(Lander, WY) – Two members of the Lander City Council voted against authorizing public consumption of alcohol for the Fourth of July holiday this week.
The resolution authorizing open containers on July 4, 2026, passed 3-2 during a special council meeting Tuesday, with Councilmembers Melinda Cox and Chad Cassady voting “no.”
Councilmembers John Larsen and Dan Hahn weren’t present at this week’s meeting.
Parade
The open container provision “has always been a source of contention for me personally,” Cox said during discussion Tuesday, recalling previous comments from former council members who called it a “tradition” to allow public consumption of alcohol on Independence Day in Lander.
“I don’t think it’s our tradition,” Cox said this week. “It’s something that we allow, (and) it’s met with considerable backlash. … As a result, I’ll be voting no. I have in the past, and I will again today.”
Even without the authorization, people would still be able to consume alcohol on private property, Cox acknowledged, explaining that her concerns about the open container allowance center mainly around the consumption of alcohol during Lander’s annual Fourth of July parade, “where we find it to be the most dangerous for our kids.”
But Councilmember Julia Stuble said she hasn’t seen enough evidence to indicate that the open container provision makes the community, and specifically the parade, more dangerous on the Fourth of July.
“I want to keep … assessing and understanding that,” she said, adding that the open container authorization is “an allowance that we grant every year.”
“For me, it’s not a given,” Stuble said. “It’s a thing we’re going to debate every year.”
In the future, she suggested having the debate earlier in the season so that, if the council decides not to allow open consumption of alcohol on the Fourth of July, there’s more time to “implement and explain” the change.
Cassady agreed that making the decision “this close to the execution date might be an error that we can change in the future.”
Other decisions about alcohol allowances for local events are made on a similar timeline though, Councilmember Josh Hahn pointed out – and those votes are usually “pretty unanimous.”
Plus, he said, Lander’s Fourth of July celebration is “a large revenue gainer” for local businesses that may be negatively impacted if the open container law isn’t lifted for the day.
“I don’t want to rob an establishment of possible financial gain (on) one of the largest days in this town,” he said. “I can’t do it to the businesses.”
Cassady appreciated Hahn’s points, but he said he would vote “no” this week in an attempt to “mitigate (the) risk” of danger during the parade.
“We’re not being prohibitionists across the community,” he said. “We’re trying to mitigate that risk (in) this small portion, where we expose our community to high risk from kids getting injured, running out in the street, and people pre-gaming and it getting a little wild and crazy.”
The resolution the council approved this week permits open containers within the city limits from 9 a.m. July 4 until midnight in celebration of of Independence Day.
“The city council believes that waiving the open container law on this occasion serves the best interests of the city and its residents,” the resolution states.