During their April regular monthly meeting, the Eminence City Council directed city attorney Chelsey Brammell to move forward with drafting ordinance that will expand the city tax charged for alcohol sales.
“We would like to mirror Henry County as much as possible, so we can all stay on the same page,” said councilwoman Lee Ann Armstrong, who informed council that she recently met with county and city officials about changes to alcohol sales within city limits.
Armstrong said the recommendation of a 5% alcohol sales tax “across the board” would increase the tax charged at restaurants that serve alcohol from 2.5% and institute taxes for retail sale of packaged liquor.
“Right now, we’re not getting anything from alcohol sales,” councilman Phillip Smith said of the packaged liquor sales.
Armstrong also reported to council that updated alcohol sales ordinance could include strengthened ordinance for business compliance with state Server Training in Alcohol Regulations (STAR).
“It’s a local ordinance,” she said. “And we’re allowed to do that. But in our ordinance, we have no penalty.”
Armstrong mentioned a penalty of $800 for business serving alcohol whose servers are not trained through the STAR program.
“You have to renew it every third year,” she said of the STAR certification renewal requirement for servers.
Brammell verified the administrative procedure for appeal of the revised regulations desired by council.
“So, if somebody’s going to appeal one of these, they’ll come before council,” she said.
In other matters during the meeting, council agreed upon a public hearing set for 15 minutes prior to the next regular monthly council meeting on May 13 for consideration of grant funding for the Jim Green Walking Trail and replacement of the rubber mulch at Coach D Park.
Council also directed Mayor Fred Downey to meet with the contractor who repaired the walking trail last year to discuss repairs for sections.
“There are cracks in it,” the mayor said of the trail, which council approved for $90,000 worth of resurfacing work last year for the approximately 4,200-foot trail including the $62,290 original bid for the work accepted by council from Derby City Paving.
Councilwoman Karen Paris commented that the contractor should repair cracks in the resurfaced finish.
“They probably won’t want to, but they should,” she said, adding that a six-foot crack in the surface formed within two months after the work was done.
Phillip Smith also commented about the walking trail work.
“Money was invested in the walking trail last year,” he said. “That was not money well spent.”
Mayor Downey said that council could consider additional work that would improve and preserve the trail.
“We could look at redoing a portion of that, making it a little bigger, a little wider and look nicer,” he said.
Downey added that setting concrete pads along the trail compliant with American with Disabilities Act requirements cost $5,900. He also recommended sealing the trail.
“If we don’t seal it, it will just go down,” he said of potential deterioration of the trail.
In other matters, council set a special meeting for April 24 at 5:15 p.m. at the East Broadway Municipal Building for opening bids for renovation work at the municipal building to install doors and further improve the community rental space.
“I’d like to get that done as soon as possible,” the mayor said of the process to start the work.
The pending construction work would require suspension of rental of the community space in the short term.
“I want construction completed by a week prior to the end of July,” Mayor Downey said.
Downey further advised council not to set a date for reopening the building community space to rentals until the renovation is near completion.
“I just don’t think it’s a good idea for us to plan that out,” he said of setting an August date for resumption of the rentals.
In an ongoing road issue addressed by council in past meetings, councilman Justin Wayman reported that efforts have stalled for CVS to correct the traffic hazard hump at the business entrance at Main Street, which he estimated would cost $13,000 to $14,000.
“It’s not a big pile of pile of money to get that problem taken care of,” he said.
Brammell recommended that the mayor contact CVS officials for further action by the company to remedy the road hazard.