The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board on Wednesday announced that it had set a public meeting in Bethel on the topic of the proposed Bethel Native Corp. liquor store, then abruptly withdrew the formal notice and said the Oct. 22 hearing was postponed.
It will be rescheduled, Cynthia Franklin, director of the state Alcohol Beverage and Marijuana Control boards, said in an email.
The board had planned to consider multiple objections and a protest by the city to the proposed Bethel Spirits package store at the much-anticipated Bethel meeting. The board already overruled the city's protest but has not yet acted on the liquor license application. The city has asked the board to reconsider the protest.
A majority of city voters in an advisory vote this month said they support a liquor store, a change from a vote five years earlier. Under election results certified Tuesday, 478 voters indicated they supported a liquor store, while 360 opposed the idea. Two new council members, Nikki Hoffman and Alisha Welch, support a liquor store, enough to shift the makeup of the council to one with a majority in favor of sales. Mayor Rick Robb and Vice Mayor Leif Albertson also were re-elected in the Oct. 6 election.
The Bethel City Council is considering a rewrite of its local alcohol law in anticipation of the first legal sales in more than 40 years. City attorney Patty Burley told the council Tuesday night that the rules in place at the time a business is licensed will govern that business. She said it wasn't yet known whether the ABC Board will act on the Bethel Native Corp. application at the Bethel meeting.
At the Tuesday night council session, Hoffman asked about formal notice of the ABC Board meeting. Bethel City Clerk Lori Strickler told her the city had not yet received notice, and that state law specified the board should provide the local community 20 days' notice.
Hoffman asked whether the council could ask for proper notice, delaying the ABC meeting and giving the city time to work on its new liquor law.
It could, if it provided the public notice that it was considering that step, Strickler said. And it hadn't done so before Tuesday's meeting.
The council agreed to resume work on the alcohol measure Oct. 20.
Efforts to reach Franklin on Wednesday evening to determine why the meeting was scheduled and then canceled were unsuccessful.