BETHEL -- The Bethel City Council is protesting two applications for liquor licenses that, if approved, would mean the first legal sales in the Western Alaska hub in more than four decades.
That's not the end of the debate over an emotional public health issue that reaches across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, where alcohol is a factor in early death, domestic violence, sexual abuse and other deep-rooted troubles.
Some Council members said they aren't opposed to a liquor store but want to follow the will of residents. In a 2010 advisory measure, voters rejected the prospect of a liquor store and other forms of alcohol sales. At a March City Council meeting, of 43 people who spoke on the prospect of liquor sales, 37 were against it.
But some on the Council say they need fresh guidance from voters. The Council on Tuesday approved putting an advisory measure on its Oct. 6 ballot asking voters whether the city should support a liquor store, a bar, a restaurant with alcohol sales, or any other type of liquor license. The Council also agreed to put to voters a question of a 12 percent tax on any alcohol sales.
The Council also voted Tuesday to protest two liquor license applications for the time being. The Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board is bound to honor a protest by local government -- and deny a license -- unless the action is found to be unreasonable or arbitrary, according to Cynthia Franklin, ABC Board director.
The ABC Board should consider the Bethel package store applications at its July 1 meeting in Fairbanks, Franklin said in an email Tuesday night. If it rejects them, the businesses can reapply, Franklin has said.
One-third of the nearly 10,000 calls to the Bethel Police Department in 2014 were for "intoxicated pedestrians," according to the resolutions to protest the liquor licenses.
The Council split 4-3 over the application of Bethel Native Corp. to operate Bethel Spirits LLC in the upstairs of the failed Swanson's store. The Native corporation owns the Kipusvik retail complex, which includes the still-operating movie theater, and the retail space that had been occupied by Swanson's grocery and department store, a business run by Omni Enterprises Inc., which is in bankruptcy.
Council members Leif Albertson, Chuck Herman, Zach Fansler and Mark Springer voted to protest the Bethel Native Corp.'s application. Mayor Rick Robb -- who works as residential services director for Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corp. -- and Council members Byron Maczynski and Heather Pike voted against the protest.
The Alaska Commercial Co., which runs the biggest remaining grocery store in Bethel, also is proposing to put in a liquor store. The Council split 6-1 on its package store application, with all but Mayor Robb voting to protest it.
People already can bring unlimited amounts of alcohol into Bethel, but they cannot sell it. The community is "wet" but with no legal sales.
Robb said legal sales would be preferable to the current situation, with bootleggers selling to anyone: children, people on probation, those who are already drunk. Most people who drink aren't alcoholics and don't cause problems, he said.
The AC Value Center is across the street from the Pentecostal church and also close to the Baptist church, Council members said. City code prohibits a package store within 300 feet of church buildings. But Council members also said they opposed the liquor store based on the prior advisory vote.
In addition, Dimitri's Restaurant in Bethel has published a notice that it intends to seek a liquor license.