Pending appeal, of course.
A permanent injunction issued Friday bars the city from enforcing its controversial ban on disposable containers and cooler-size limits on the Guadalupe and Comal rivers inside the city limits.
“You can start drinking from cans and bottles on the rivers, effective immediately,” said Jim Ewbank, attorney for plaintiffs who had sued to overturn the city codes.
He declared “total victory” at the close of the hours-long hearing before visiting state District Judge Don Burgess.
Burgess had previously found the disposable container ban and cooler limits unconstitutional. On Friday he denied the city’s motion to suspend his injunction if the city appeals or to require the plaintiffs to post a bond of at least $2 million if he prevented the ordinances from being enforced.
The initial ruling was made in January. And speaking of appeals:
New Braunfels will appeal a judge’s ruling that struck down its disposable container prohibition and a limit on the size of coolers used by tubers on the Guadalupe and Comal rivers.
Also Monday, council voted 4-3 to increase a river management fee charged by local outfitters to $1.50 from $1.25 per tuber.
The fee increase may be cause for further legal action, but that to me seems more like your standard issue political fight, best settled at the ballot box. For this summer at least, you can pack your brewskis as you did before on the Comal River. Happy tubing, y’all.
What New Braunfels needs to do is have cops watch and ticket the folks actually doing the littering. After word gets out that littering jerks are getting hit hard in the wallet, I imagine behaviors will change. It might not be quite as cool to toss those empties when doing so will land you in court.
It isn’t that hard to police your empties, even if you are a little tipsy. Take a new beverage out of the ice chest, put the old one back. Easy Peasy.