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City adds liquor license

The Vandalia City Council voted on Monday to add a liquor license, action that should help bring another restaurant to town.
The council voted 5-2 to increase the number of Class E license to eight, two weeks after a Greenville couple announced its request.
At the Feb. 18 council meeting, Vicki Ellsworth said that she and her husband, Rob, would like to have the license for a sit-down style restaurant they hope to develop.
That restaurant would be adjacent to a Huddle House that the Ellsworths will build this summer near Holiday Inn Express in the city’s western Interstate 70 interchange. The Ellsworths currently operate Huddle House restaurants in Greenville and Highland.
Their two restaurants in the southwest quadrant of the western interchange will have a common wall, but two, separate entrances, Vicki Ellsworth told the council two weeks ago.
The name of the second restaurant has not yet been announced, as the couple is still in the process of finalizing the terms of a franchise agreement, she said.
Voting to add the liquor license were aldermen Neil Clark, Russ Stunkel, Terry Beesley, B. John Clark and Andy Lester. Voting against it were Jerry Swarm and Mike Hobler.
Earlier in Monday’s meeting, local resident Melvin Huber asked a number of questions about the license.
Huber asked whether the owners of the two restaurants could extend the sale of liquor into both businesses, and Mayor Rick Gottman said they could not.
Huber also questioned whether the council would be approving a new license without knowing the name of the restaurant.
B. John Clark said, “The license will not be issued until we know who it is.”
While the council approves the number of licenses available, it is up to the mayor, as the city’s liquor commissioner, to act on liquor license applications.
Also at Monday’s meeting, the council tabled a proposed ordinance establishing compensation for local firefighters deployed for major emergencies.
The Vandalia Volunteer Fire Department submitted the proposed ordinance through its membership in the Illinois Mutual Aid Box Alarm System. The VVFD is part of MABAS Division 54.
VVFD Chief Ed Taylor said this ordinance pertains only to emergencies situations, such as a hurricane, in which MABAS is asked to provide manpower.
He said MABAS has encouraged the development of such ordinances to establish guidelines for the reimbursement of firefighters’ pay by MABAS while they are away from their jobs.
Because several aldermen were concerned with some of the wording in the ordinance, particularly that which appears to call for the city (instead of MABAS) to compensate firefighters, Gottman referred the matter to the council’s public safety committee.
That committee will review and discuss the proposed ordinance with at least one VVFD chief at a 5:30 p.m. meeting next Monday at city hall.
Also at the meeting:
• The council also delayed action on the Vandalia Lake Club’s request for renewal of its lease for property at the lake.
Hobler, chairman of the city’s lake committee, said he wanted that committee to discuss the renewal request. The committee will meet at 5 p.m. on Monday at city hall.
Through the lease, the lake club pays the city $300 annually.
• The council observed a moment of silence for Joe Wyant, a process server for the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office and former lake employee.
• The council approved the closure of Gallatin Street downtown for four events his year:
-ABATE Bike Show and Family Festival, 7 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, May 18.
-Grand Levée and Harvest Festival, 7 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 28.
-Vandalia Lions Club’s Halloween parade, 7-9 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 24.
-Vandalia Rotary Club’s Christmas parade, 8:45-11:15 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7.
• Gottman reported that work on streetscape improvements in the 100 and 200 blocks of South Fourth Street will begin as soon as the weather breaks.
He also reported that Scott Rakers of HMG Engineers told him that a local person is creating the handrails for the raised areas of sidewalk in front of some businesses on Gallatin Street.
However, Gottman said, he has not yet been told which local contractor is doing the work.
• Gottman commended the city’s police department for its assistance in apprehending two individuals who robbed an Altamont bank and then headed west on Interstate 70. The robbers were captured in Bond County, with city officers helping take them into custody.
The mayor also praised police Sgt. Jeff Ray, who is the department’s acting chief, for his participation in the Illinois Law Enforcement System for regions 9 and 11.
That tactical unit was in Vandalia for training sessions last Friday (see story elsewhere in today’s issue).
• Gottman praised local contractor Dennis Grubaugh for his work on the new home for Lorenzo’s Pizza and Pasta, at Third Street and Kennedy Boulevard, and for his improvements to other buildings throughout the city.
 

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