A local business owner is not giving up on having a liquor license at a new business. Last night, at the Village of South Jacksonville board meeting Village President Harry Jennings notified the board that Stacey & Tom Pinkerton had submitted a new application for a Class B liquor license for their proposed new operation at 1724 South Main Street Suite A. The village had denied the original permit on October 3rd for a Class A liquor license, which is the designation of a tavern. The discussion came up during the approval of payable bills for the previous month and Jennings notified the board that the Pinkertons had reapplied for the new license.
Jennings explains the Pinkerton’s new application: “She reapplied for a license, which will be a Class B restaurant and lodging license. In order to have that license you would have to a restaurant business that primarily serves food. It would be subject to an audit on how much revenue comes from food versus how much alcohol it sells. A restaurant currently can operate in the location the Pinkertons own, as long it’s under 3500 square feet. The location is 900 square feet, so that’s not an issue. The only concern now is whether or not the restaurant can sell alcohol in that zoning ordinance. It’s not really been touched on in the ordinance, so that’s something we will talk to legal counsel about and go from there.”
Trustees Paula Belobradjic-Stewart, Dick Samples, and Todd Warrick were vocal in opposition to issuing the liquor license at last night’s village board meeting after they had recently voted against the previous application last month. Stewart asked Attorney Rob Cross about capping the number of licenses for the village, an initiative that Jennings had been in favor of in the past. The village is expected to come to a consensus on the issuance of the license at the next village board meeting on November 19th at 6:30PM at Village Hall on Dewey Drive.