Make no mistake, a majority of the Bethel City Council wants their message to be clear to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board next week: they protest the renewal of Alaska Commercial Company's liquor license. On Tuesday night, the Council voted to postpone a meeting between the city administration and AC until after the ABC Board meeting next week.
With council member Naim Shabani and Vice Mayor Fred Watson absent for the vote, the 4-1 decision stood Tuesday night, with Mayor Richard Robb in opposition. The Council voted last month to protest Alaska Commercial Company's renewal application to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.
After last month's vote, the corporation's General Manager, Walter Pickett, wrote to Mayor Robb requesting a “work session” with City Council to look at what could be done. Pickett also announced that he would be closing the store on Sundays.
Mayor Robb and the City administration drafted an action item to invite AC for a discussion, but Council members who voted for the protest said that they felt it would send a mixed message to the ABC Board.
“Open lines of communication are great,” said council member Leif Albertson, "but I still support the protest.”
Council member Mark Springer agreed.
“I agree that this could be taken up there and wagged in the Board's face,” Springer said. “So I would move to postpone Action Memorandum 18-25 until our next meeting.”
Council member Mitchell Forbes said that he would support a meeting after the ABC Board decides on the license renewal, adding that there are definitely some things that the city and AC could work out. Still, he had similar concerns to Albertson and Springer.
“I foresee AC using the Sunday closure as showing the ABC Board, ‘oh, that protest is arbitrary and capricious,’ you know, ‘we’re working with our community.’ And so I’d be really interested to see if AC is willing to wait until after the ABC meeting meets to talk with the administration,” said Forbes.
The concerns behind the protest include the liquor store location, which is in close proximity to ASHA housing and several Bethel schools, the lack of security outside the store, and increased calls to police and ambulance services in the area. The issue of legal alcohol sales in the Y-K Delta is a controversial one, but the residents of Bethel voted to approve it. Now, surrounding communities are making their concerns known.
Less than 10 miles from Bethel’s shores sits the dry village of Napaskiak, where Tribal Administrator Sharon Williams requested that Governor Bill Walker issue an emergency declaration to deal with the impact that legal alcohol sales in Bethel have had on the village. Increasing alcohol-related crimes and deaths over the past two years are purported to be the result of the liquor store.
Bethel City Council has taken action to deal with increased burdens on the city's social services. Last year, the alcohol sales tax was increased to 15 percent. Twenty percent of that revenue was then put towards the Community Action Grant Fund to award organizations and individuals with projects that Council hopes will better equip the city to deal with the alcohol issue. Those first grants were awarded Tuesday night to the Bethel library, Bethel Search and Rescue, ONC, and the Y-K Fitness Center.
The ABC Board meets in Nome on April 3. The city will be represented there by City Attorney Patty Burley. The public can listen in, and those interested in including their testimony shouldcontact the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.
