Council Approves Distilled Package Store Ordinances

Business, Community, Lifestyle, Outdoors

DAHLONEGA, Ga.- The City Council voted to approve the distilled package store ordinances after weeks of discussion and changes, the vote was three to two.

The council also reviewed a presentation by Rachel McGirr of Enterprise Fleet on a new contract for fleet replacement. Capital Projects Manager Vince Hunsinger informed the council of the bid they have received to build the restrooms on the reservoir.

The distilled package store ordinance began as a referendum placed on the ballot last Nov. for the voters to decide on. When the referendum passed the council then had to begin to construct ordinances for the store. They began in a work session discussing what it should read like and then City Attorney Doug Parks drafted the ordinances.

Councilmember Johnny Ariemma and councilmember Roman Gaddis during the discussion about the changes to the ordinance.

The first reading of the ordinances took place on May 2 at the regular meeting. The council then held a special call meeting on May 10 to give the citizens of Dahlonega a chance to come to ask questions about the ordinances. To review that meeting please visit https://lumpkin.fetchyournews.com/2022/05/11/council-holds-meeting-on-distilled-spirits-package-store/.

After that meeting Parks went back to the draft and made a few further changes which were presented to the council. The changes are adding the word continuous in regards to the sq. ft. requirement and allowing the sq. ft. to continue onto another level, the inventory requirement being identified as wholesale and not retail cost, and a new clause allowing only one application per location identity however the applicant has one opportunity after receiving the license to change the location that was identified, and the last change was to give all authority to grant extensions to the City Manager.

“What we did was we tried to honor various comments not only at the Tuesday meeting but other comments that came into play and so what we’ve done is put all those into a chart,” explained Parks

The council reviewed these changes and had discussions on them before deciding to act. The ordinances will go into effect on Tuesday, May 24. The application for the license will be available on that date.

McGirr made her presentation for Enterprise Fleet to the council. Her proposal would replace the vehicles over ten years old with newer models and more than $47,790 in the capital funds. To review her entire presentation to the council visit https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/dahlonega-pubu/MEET-Packet-c5c36d455bae49b4988e5e11af7cf37a.pdf, it begins on page 25.

The key objectives of the contract with Enterprise Fleet.

Finance Director Allison Martin and Public Works Director/City Engineer Mark Buchanan have been working with McGirr on this proposal. The only action that was required by the council was a nod that they are interested in further pursuing this which they gave. McGirr is also working with the county on a similar proposal.

Hunsinger informed the council of the current bid they have for the reservoir restroom project. The bid is $105,410.09. The current budget that has been set out for this project is $109,127.90. The county will be covering 46% of the cost of the project because that is how much of the reservoir they own. The council will vote on this bid at the regular meeting on June 6.

“It’s a little more expensive than what we had originally bid out but we are going to bill out the county 46% of the final cost, the pad, and the utilities so we may be alright with this,” stated Hunsinger.

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