Beer sales heat up Council Chambers

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The thermostat was rising in Van Wert City Council Chambers last night as a standing-room-only crowd debated whether having a beer concession as part of this spring’s Wheels-N-Wings festival was a good idea. Tempers stayed cool, though, as both sides respectfully stated their positions on the issue.

The big guns were all on the side of the beer Monday evening, as county officials and even a Delphos city official weighed in on the side of allowing a one-day exception to a city ordinance that bans alcohol sales on city property.

First up was Van Wert Law Director Greg Unterbrink, who gave his legal opinion that the city and county could legally agree to a one-day exception of the ban on alcohol consumption on public property.

Van Wert Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Larry Lee, who also chairs the Wheels-N-Wings Festival Committee, told City Council of all the measures being put into place to ensure that the Wheel-N-Wings event, formerly held in conjunction with the Van Wert Ribfest and Crossroads Festival in August but this year moving to May 21, would be as uneventful as the Ribfest. Beer has been sold and consumed the past four years at the Ribfest in a fenced-in area separated from both eating and entertainment areas.

As at the Ribfest, off-duty deputies from the Van Wert County Sheriff’s Department would pull security at the Wheels-N-Wings beer sales area.

Both Lee and County Commissioner Clair Dudgeon, who represented the Airport Authority Board at the meeting, noted that beer sales during the event would help raise funds for both the airport and CVB – with both groups needing an influx of cash because of state and local funding cuts and the economic downturn.

“For us, events like this are very critical,” Lee noted, adding that, while the city hotel-motel tax brings in excess of $100,000 a year, only about $26,000 of that money actually goes to the CVB, with most of the rest funding the local economic development office.

Commissioner Thad Lichtensteiger also stated his opinion that beer sales were a good way to raise needed cash for both entities, looking at the event as a way to bring people into the community – something the newest commissioner said jibes with his focus on economic development.

Delphos Safety-Service Director Greg Berquist also spoke at the meeting, noting that two events in that city – the annual Canal Days Festival and an event hosted by the Kiwanis – both involved beer sales and were very successful.

However, local pastor the Rev. Paul Hamrick – the primary opponent of the beer sales – noted that St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Delphos makes thousands of dollars annually without selling beer at a festival on church grounds, and also warned that the city would have legal liability if beer sales were allowed at the airport.

Hamrick proposed that any beer concession be held at the Elks lodge, since members of the lodge would be the ones selling the beer on airport property. The CVB, Regional Airport Authority and the Elks plan to split any proceeds from beer sales during the Wheels-N-Wings Festival.

In the end, Council members sided with beer sale proponents, with six of the seven Council members voting in favor of preparing legislation allowing the exception. First Ward Councilman John Marshall abstained since he also belongs to the Wheel-N-Wings Festival Committee.

The measure will now be debated for three meetings before final passage is voted on during the March 14 meeting. Although those in favor of beer sales significantly outnumbered those against them at Monday’s meeting, Hamrick hinted that more opponents may show up for one or all of the upcoming meetings, noting that some of his fellow ministers were out of town yesterday for the March for Life rally in Washington, D.C., and couldn’t attend the City Council meeting to express their feelings on the matter.

Other action Monday night included a supplemental appropriation needed for an insurance settlement related to a house fire on Monroe Street and approval of putting a loading zone in place on the east side of The Partee Shop, along North Shannon Street.

Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming also noted that the resumption of work on South Shannon Street has been pushed back another week, to Monday, January 31, because of the recent cold and snowy winter weather.