Bethel battles Alaska Commercial over liquor store amid tense debate on alcohol sales

Citing a spike in public safety calls, the Southwest Alaska hub city of Bethel is brawling with a major Bush retailer over the renewal of a liquor license for the town's only currently operating liquor store.

The battle between the city council and liquor store owner Alaska Commercial Co. goes before the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board at its meeting in Nome on Tuesday.

The Bethel city council voted in February "imploring" the liquor control board to reject the license renewal at the store's current location in a densely populated neighborhood not far from public schools.

The question comes amid a major debate over liquor sales in the city of 6,300, a regional hub for dry villages that have complained about increased violence, accidental deaths and social problems since the store opened in 2016, the city's first liquor store in 40 years.

The board's staff, in line with the city council, has recommended not renewing the license.

The council isn't trying to kill the store, said Mitchell Forbes, a city councilman. Instead, it wants the AC Quickstop to leave its current location where heavy foot traffic has led to children witnessing fights and other alcohol-fueled acts.

AC was allowed to operate the store before the city instituted conditional-use permits that control liquor store locations, he said. A better spot would be in a less populated area, he said.

The current location, 131 Akakeet St.. is across the street from a subsidized housing development and about 1,000 feet from an elementary school.

An official with AC did not respond to phone calls seeking comment. The company is challenging the city's position, saying it stems from a small fraction of community members who don't want liquor sales in Bethel.

There "is simply no legally sound reason offered by the city to support denying this renewal application," the store owner says in its argument to the board.

Bethel voted to become a "wet" community in 2015, paving the way for the liquor store's opening.

AC recently agreed to close the doors at the liquor store on Sundays, after a tribal government in a nearby village called on Gov. Bill Walker to declare an emergency and shut the store down.

Bethel's city council says since the store opened, fire department emergency response calls have jumped 48 percent, to more than 1,700, according to the council resolution.  Calls to the sobering center at the Bethel regional hospital rose 32 percent in one year, the resolution said.

The retailer argues that the call logs are not response reports and raise multiple questions, including whether the calls were directly tied to a purchase of alcohol from the store or caused by unrelated issues.