Cornell City Council; Beer now on the menu for winery
By Julia Wolf
The Class B Beer License application for Wisconsin Veteran Farm LLC was approved during a regular Cornell City Council meeting, May 5, for the space indicated on a map presented to the board.
Bill Kvapil, alderperson, said he and Cornell Police Chief Glenn Rehberg met with veteran farm owner Dan Osborn at the property, to discuss limiting the beer garden capacity to 150 people. Rehberg says his only concern about the project is the total occupancy numbers, based on police capabilities.
Rehberg says he would like to see a process in place if Osborn wants to hold an event with more than 150 people present, with a way to bring appropriate resources in.
Steve Turany, board president, asked if the language about requesting a waiver has to be included.
“I think we need to put the language in there, just so his business is covered and we’re also covered,” said Ashley Carothers, council member.
Osborn questioned, since he already has a wine license for a full five acres of the property, with no limit on the number of patrons he can have, how the proposed limitations for the beer license they are discussing fits in. He asked if all patrons, regardless of what they are drinking, would now be limited to the beer garden area, or only those drinking beer.
“I just wanted to know, where these lines are crossing,” said Osborn.
Turany asked Osborn how it would affect his business if people weren’t allowed to go across the full five acres. Osborn says he doesn’t want the full five acres, because there are renovations that need doing and to have a separate space for minors, in case of an event like a car show or food truck.
Turany says he sees no difference between walking around with a glass of wine, as is allowed right now, or a bottle of beer.
Turany also asked Osborn how the limit of how many patrons he can have would affect him. Osborn says it would affect the business, but there are only so many people to serve patrons and only so much alcohol on hand, so even large crowds wouldn’t have mass amounts of alcohol served to them. Osborn says, if it is a bigger event where more people are expected, he would hire the sheriff’s department, or a bonded and licensed organization.
Turany asked Rehberg what his concerns are, since there are no restrictions on numbers of people allowed at the winery now. Rehberg says his concerns are specifically regarding the beer license, as the clientèle is different than a winery usually gets.
“I think the difference in that is implied in a separate license,” said Rehberg.
He says he has no problem with the winery as it currently is.
“It’s a different risk profile and that’s where I’m concerned about the total numbers we can adequately police,” said Rehberg.
Council members decided the best way to proceed would be to draw the beer garden boundaries onto a map, then take a vote.
The council voted to approve the Class Beer License for Wisconsin Veteran Farm LLC, for the area highlighted on an aerial map of the property, with four in favor (Turany, Kvapil, Floyd Hickethier, Terry Smith) and two abstentions (Carothers, Aimee Korger).
Members also approved an addendum to the professional services agreement with Cedar Corp., to administer the Community Development Block Grant – Coronavirus (CDBG- CV) award, for the cost of $15,000. The closure of North 8th Street, in front of the high school, was also approved for Thursday, May 26, from 8 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., for an end-of-the-year school carnival.
Linda Flater also requested a handicap parking space in front of Dylan’s Dairy, on behalf of her customers. If that was not possible, Flater asked the board to consider a 15 or 30-minute parking space there, to give families time to bring in their loved one and find another space to park.
DeJongh thought there may be rules around making a parallel parking space a handicap spot, since that would be asking them to get out into a traffic lane.
“All of our handicap parking is angle parking,” said De-Jongh.
Carothers asked if Second Street, just around the corner, would be a better option for handicap parking and others agreed.
“I don’t see why both of them couldn’t be done,” said Carothers.
With that, council members approved a 15-minute parking space in front of Dylan’s Dairy. Since only a parking space in front of Dylan’s was listed on the agenda, no action on an alternate handicap space was made during the meeting.
Mayor Mark Larson reported the Board of Review met and no objections were brought before them. DeJongh says the assessor did mention that the city will be out of compliance on the assessed values, with all the sales going on.
“We’re probably going to be notified by the Department of Revenue this year, that we need to get our values within 10 percent of fair market value,” said DeJongh.
