Brad Gauthier paints a simple picture. After a day on his mountain bike at the Veterans Memorial Recreational Area, it’d be nice to drink a Kettle Head IPA beer in the lodge.

Ted Starkweather, a Ward 1 City Councilor, doesn’t see it so clearly, though.

The recreational area – which Gauthier said influenced his relocation to Franklin a few years ago from southern New Hampshire – is a 50-acre playground of hiking, mountain biking, disc golf, skiing, snowboarding and sledding.

It’s a city-owned piece of property, operated by the Franklin Outing Club, a nonprofit volunteer organization. Therein lies the issue to Starkweather.

“So what happens if Joe Six Pack comes in with his 30 pack in the tailgate of his truck on a weekend of skiing?” he said at a council meeting on Monday. “Do they fall under the problem of the outing club, the city or what?”

A request to renew a liquor license to continue to serve alcohol on occasion at the recreational area’s lodge drew a spirited debate among the city council at their first meeting of the year on Monday.

With three new faces on the council after a contentious election this fall, the freshly minted group also chose to challenge Mayor Desiree McLaughlin – overriding her veto powers with a two-thirds vote.

To some councilors, the request at hand was simple: the Franklin Outing Club wanted city approval to be able to go to the New Hampshire State Liquor Commission and renew their license to serve beer and alcohol, on occasion, at their lodge.

To others, including McLaughlin, the precedent of allowing alcohol on city property not only sends a clouded message to children in the community but sets the small city up for a legal fiasco.

“It’s city property and we have to protect our city property,” she said. “Somebody who goes down the road and crashes the car into a tree? Where did they get drunk?”

Last year, the nonprofit group applied for a liquor license through the state that allowed them to serve beer and wine at occasional events. To date, there were no incidents on-site and the sales have allowed the group to raise money, said Krystal Alpers, the Franklin Parks and Recreation Director, in a letter to the council.

Prior to obtaining a liquor license, the nonprofit would apply for one-day permits from the state – a more costly alternative.

City staff endorsed the permit application in Alpers’ letter, as long as the outing club continued to follow local and state regulations.

Susan Hallett-Cook, a Ward 2 Councilor, reminded the group that last year, the outing club came before the council with a request for a liquor license on a trial basis.

With no problems during the trial, there’s no reason to prevent the permit, said Hallett-Cook.

Still, McLaughlin was not convinced.

In 2023, 65 percent of Franklin High School students participated in a youth behavior risk survey, which showed that Franklin students were more likely to live with someone who had substance abuse challenges, compared to the rest of the state.

“So let’s bring it to our child friendly environment,” said McLaughlin. “You cannot prevent them from going to their car and drinking… When you start allowing the serving of alcohol, if you’re permitting people, then you can’t prove where they were drunk.”

To Hallett-Cook, McLaughlin’s rationale was a broad sweeping generalization: that allowing alcohol around children inherently traumatizes them.

“Then let’s become a dry community,” she quipped. “And you can take the liquor license away from every place in town.”

The council approved both the permit process and overrided McLaughlin’s veto. The Outing Club will still need to renew the license from the state liquor commission.