Bethel City Council voted to protest two liquor store applications at its meeting on Tuesday. Both applications want to turn existing businesses into liquor stores: Fili’s Pizza and Cezary’s Auto Body and Paint shop. Neither business has secured a Conditional Use Permit for their construction.
Both protests passed five to one, with Mayor Rick Robb voting in opposition. Vice Mayor Byron Maczynski did not attend the meeting.
Multiple community members opened the meeting advocating for the protests.
Eileen Arnold, Executive Director of the Tundra Women’s Coalition, says demand for services has increased and sexual assaults have gone up since Bethel opened a liquor store last year.
“I expect with more liquor stores and more liquor availability that our numbers are going to continue to rise, but our capacity to provide services is going to hit a ceiling because of federal, state, and city fund availability," said Arnold, "and that makes me question, can this community and this region handle another liquor store?”
The Council’s main reason for opposing the Fili’s application is the site’s location. It sits across the street from a halfway house and a cemetery, down the street from a 4-H teen center, and near Pinky's Park, Bethel’s largest recreational area.
The city invests in both the 4-H center and the park and Council Member Leif Albertson, who sponsored the protest, said that a liquor store at Fili’s would undermine that investment. Also, the area surrounding Fili’s is a bushy, wooded area that Albertson said is unsafe for Bethel's first responders.
“I think for [the Police Department], certainly for Fire Department, when there’s calls to that boardwalk, when there’s calls to that area of Pinky’s Park, it’s very hard to respond to those calls and, I would argue, not safe to respond," said Albertson. "We’re leaving our vehicle behind. If there’s another call, if something is wrong, if we need help, we’re a long ways from that.”
Earlier in the meeting, Police Chief Andre Achee told the Council that with the police force less than halfway staffed, it will often take time for officers to respond to calls.
“Calls are responded to on a priority based assignment. There will be times that it will take a while for an officer to get there,” said Chief Achee.
Council member Alisha Welch sponsored the protest against the application to turn Cezary’s Auto Body and Paint shop into a liquor store. The shop, owned by Cezary Maczynski, sits near the seawall and across the street from another licensed liquor store, which is not currently operating. But the main reason for the protest is that the site has not received the required Conditional Use Permit from the city. Also, as Welch said, the Council was unclear on who owns a piece of property that the site would expand its parking lot into.
“There has been no land survey. Mr. Maczynski has provided a map in his original application, and then just one tonight that is not the same as the one in his application,” Welch told the Council.
If the paperwork the Council received does answer the land ownership question, it could lead to Maczynski receiving a permit for the site. In that case, Council Member Albertson said, they could consider dropping the protest.
“We have the ability to withdraw a protest. We don’t have the ability to go backwards and protest," he said. "And right now, there’s no Conditional Use Permit. So in our code, it has not met zoning requirements.”
The Council has 60 days to protest an application after it receives notice, and Tuesday was the last Council meeting before that period ended.
The Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which grants or denies alcohol licenses, will consider both applications in April. The board can issue one more liquor store license in Bethel.
Also at the meeting, Bethel City Council unanimously voted to donate 5,000 dollars to Bethel Search and Rescue for the organization to hold a three-day regional conference in mid-March. The donation will divert unspent police personnel funding.
Lastly, Council postponed voting on whether or not to designate five acres for Bethel’s first dog park next to the Public Health Nursing Building. The Council wants to clarify legal and insurance questions on the land before it votes.
Correction: The $5,000 donation from the City of Bethel to Bethel Search and Rescue will not divert money designated for Kuskokwim 300 race sponsorship and ONC bus maintenance as originally reported on KYUK and as written in the Bethel City Council meeting packet for February 28, 2017. The donation will instead divert unspent police personnel funding.
