GODFREY - Godfrey Mayor Mike McCormick and several village trustees are wary of the increasing number of liquor license requests they’ve been getting from local businesses after one such request came before the Village Board on Wednesday from Kroger, the owner of Ruler Foods in Godfrey.
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At Wednesday night’s Village Board meeting, trustees discussed a liquor license request from Kroger for a “Beer of the Month” promotion. The grocery store chain said in their application that they “will also be applying for state video gaming licenses in the near future.”
Mayor Mike McCormick recalled Trustee Rick Lauschke raising concerns about the growing number of liquor license/video gaming requests from local businesses at the last Village Board meeting and said he thinks the situation is “getting out of control.”
“We’ve been getting a lot of these,” McCormick said. “Now the Ruler store wants to be able to put in video gaming … we need to get some rules in place and I think maybe we should form a committee, because it’s really getting out of control.”
Mayor McCormick then asked if any of the trustees would like to serve on that committee. Trustees Sarah Woodman and Mike Fisher volunteered.
No official action was taken on the request at this meeting as it was put on the agenda for first reading. The Village Board will officially vote on it at their next meeting, which is scheduled for August 1.
Kroger stated in their local liquor license application to the village board that their “initial plan” is to “feature a ‘Beer of the Month” and that they expect “fairly limited on-premises consumption sales.”
“This is part of a company initiative, and other Kroger Family of Companies stores will also be pursuing this type of opportunity,” they said. “This model has worked well for stores operated by one of our affiliate(s), and we are confident that this model will work well in our stores in Illinois.”
Ruler Foods is located at 5771 Godfrey Road in Godfrey.
A full recording of the July 5 Village Board meeting can be watched at the top of this story or on Riverbender.com/video.
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