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Downtown Distillery planned

An Iowa man with local connections and his wife are planning the startup of a unique business in a downtown Vandalia landmark. And Rick and Cindy Radliff are getting some help from the city to do so. The Radliffs traveled from their home in Des Moines on Monday to be on hand when the city council acted on their application for a Tax Increment Financing grant. The Radliffs plan to operate Witness Distillery in the building at 330 W. Gallatin St., which served as the home of Allen Furniture for many decades. At that distillery, the Radliffs plan to “distill, age and sell finished product to the public,” with their products including bourbon, single-malt rye whiskey, rye, wheat whiskey and flavored influsions. The council approved a TIF grant of $83,350, half of the estimated cost of improvements to the building that include updating electrical and plumbing, installing ADA-compliant restrooms, reinforcement of the floor and new flooring, a sprinkler system, new lighting and facade work on the exterior. The finished product, in addition to a distillery, will include a tasting room and bar for visitors. Once the business is opened with distilled products, in about two years, the Radliffs plan to make it a tourist destination as well as a distillery. “Tours will explain how spirits are made and the history of distillation, including the impact of prohibition in Illinois, a little-known but incredible piece of Illinois history,” Rick Radliff states in the couple’s TIF grant application. “Our plan is not to have a bar that operates late into the night nor is disruptive to the community,” he said. “Our goal is to bring tourists to the city,” Radliff said. “It’s a real opportunity.” He said that distilleries such as the one they are planning are on the rise, following on the popularity of wineries. “People want to know where the food comes from, they want to know where the drink comes from – they want that connection,” Radliff told the council. At Witness Distillery, he said, they will be using local grain and spring water. “I don’t know of any that do that; they use municipal water, and they don’t know where the grain comes from,” Radliff said. Once they are ready to open the business to the public, they will begin offering straight bourbon and straight single-malt whiskey out of the barrel. “I don’t know of a distillery that we’ve been to that has been able to do that,” Radliff said. “Most sell light whiskey and white rum … to generate cash.” He said that they hope to start working on the building as soon as April 15. Asked why they picked Vandalia, Radliff said that one reason is his local ties. He grew up in Decatur, and his wife in Moweaqua, but his father grew up in the Four Mile area and his mother in Vera. Radliff, the cousin of First National Bank President Mike Radliff, said that he and his wife have owned property here for about 30 years. “Eventually, we’ll come back here, we’ll retire here,” he said. Also, Radliff said, “We couldn’t get into this in St. Louis, we couldn’t do this in Collinsville or Edwardsville.” The cost to start a distillery here will be about half of what it would be in the Metro East, he said. About the Radliffs’ project, Mayor Rick Gottman said, “This is a tourist attraction. It is a situation that will create jobs and fill a downtown building that without them purchasing it would have sat for many years empty.” Also at the meeting: • The council approved the transfer of Matthew Wyant from the water treatment plant to the mechanic position at the city garage. The council then voted to authorize the opening at the water plant created by Wyant’s transfer. • The council gave the Vandalia Volunteer Fire Department the authorization to sell the ladder truck formerly used full-time by the department. That Ladder Towers Inc. ladder truck was purchased in 1995 and put into service in 1996. It was replaced in 2013 with a ladder truck purchased from KME. The fire department sought bids for the truck upon receiving its new truck, but did not receive much interest at that time. Mayor Rick Gottman said that the fire department is wanting to try some new strategies for the sale of the truck, and he asked that Zac Kopp, the city’s code official and a member of the VVFD, be involved in that process. • Gottman announced that the second meeting to discuss county-wide economic development efforts will be held at 6:30 p.m. this Thursday in the original conference room at Fayette County Hospital. Representatives from all Fayette County communities and the Fayette County’s economic development committee will be attending that public meeting. • Gottman and City Clerk Peggy Bowen announced that the clerk’s staff will be going through training through Friday. Because of that, the front portion of city hall will be closed. Gottman said that water bills can be paid in the rear part of city hall, off of Fifth Street. Employees accepting water bill payments will not have access to residents’ records, so residents paying bills will need to know their bill information.

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