An ongoing source of discussion by the Safety and Licensing Committee has been whether or not to approve the non-renewal of the combination Class B beer/Class B liquor license for the Corner Pub due to abandonment. The business has been closed for over a year and is 2 ½ months past the deadline of 05/30/2024 to reopen and start utilizing its alcohol license. On 07/24/2024 the committee voted 3-2 to extend that deadline to 08/15/2024 in light of the health problems and deaths of relatives the owner experienced over the last year.
The issue has not received a final vote by the Common Council and the committee will be taking the matter up again at its 08/14/2024 meeting.
I reached out to City Clerk Kami Lynch and asked her about the availability of Class B Beer and Class B Liquor licenses. She said that, as of Friday 08/09/2024, there were only 2 regular licenses available for which there were pending applications from 7 businesses. Additionally, she anticipated one of those licenses to be issued soon, which would leave only 1 available license.
The cost of a regular combination Class B Beer/Class B Liquor license was $600 plus additional publication and background check fees. Once that last regular license was acquired, remaining businesses could apply for a reserve license. The fee for that was $10,600 plus additional publication and background check fees.
It appears to me that the Safety and Licensing Committee has, at this point, opted to take a regular license that, under the rules laid out in the Municipal Code, should be available for any and all businesses to pursue and instead reserved it for exclusive pursuit by the Corner Pub. They have done this under the reasoning that the health issues experienced by the owner and her husband as well as the loss of unidentified family members over the last year warrants the city providing this special consideration. At the same time, the committee has not been investigating the health of the applicants for the last remaining beer and liquor licenses that are not being held for exclusive pursuit by the Corner Pub or using that as a metric to determine which of them should receive those last few licenses.
The facts of the case as established by the committee is that the building in which the Corner Pub is located experienced a broken water pipe in February of 2023 and the owners were told by the Health Department on 05/30/2023 that the business could not reopen before significant repairs were made. In late June of 2023, the owner was informed by the city that if the business was not back up and running by 05/30/2024 that her alcohol license was at risk of not being renewed.
Up through 05/30/2024, the owner did not take out any permits to carry out work or request any inspections from the city to identify what issues needed to be addressed. Concerted efforts to repair the building began only after she was notified on 05/31/2024 that the city was not going to renew her license.
Because she was dealing with cancer for the last year and because it appeared to some committee members that it would be difficult for her to pay the additional $10,000 fee associated with a reserve license, the committee voted 3-2 to extend the deadline for her to get the business back up and running and not lose her license. If approved by the Common Council, one result of that decision would potentially be that another business owner in the city will have to pay $10,600 for a reserve license when, if the rules in the Municipal Code regarding abandonment of licenses had been adhered to, there would have been a $600 regular license available to them.
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