The state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board is scheduled to consider on Thursday two proposed liquor stores in Bethel, which hasn't had legal sales for more than 40 years.
The back-to-back meetings will be at the Anchorage Legislative Information Office, 716 W. Fourth Ave. The sessions will be teleconferenced. People can call 1-800-315-6338, code 69173#.
Residents shouldn't expect sales anytime soon. One of the proposed liquor stores may be in trouble because it's in a public housing complex. The space that had been proposed for the other may become a temporary school instead. In addition, by one measurement the proposed Bethel Spirits store is too close to the grounds of the Bethel Youth Facility, a juvenile detention center that includes a school.
At a special meeting set for 9 a.m., the ABC Board is scheduled to reconsider a protest by the Bethel City Council in opposition to the proposed Bethel Spirits store. Bethel Native Corp. has been trying for months to get a license for the store but it may use the space for a temporary school instead. The board is not taking any public testimony at the special meeting.
Last week the council voted 4-3 to drop its protest, but at this point the ABC Board is set to reconsider it Thursday anyway because the previous council had requested it.
Then at its regular meeting, the ABC Board is scheduled to consider the Bethel Spirits license application itself – including community sentiment for and against it -- at 2 p.m.
Meanwhile, Bethel Native Corp. is negotiating with the Lower Kuskokwim School District to use its empty retail center for a temporary school. If that happens, the liquor store wouldn't be allowed there.
In addition, the ABC Board sent an investigator to Bethel in October to measure the distance between Bethel Spirits and Bethel Youth Facility, according to a memo in the packet for the ABC Board. State law says alcohol cannot be sold within 200 feet of a school, and city law says not within 300 feet. The city measures that as a straight line from the store parking lot entrance to school grounds. The investigator found that using the city's method, the distance was about 145 feet.
The ABC Board also is considering a proposal by the Alaska Commercial Co. for a liquor store at its AC Quickstop in Bethel. That is set to come up just after noon.
The property is within an Alaska Housing Finance Corp. residential complex and some city council members were concerned about a liquor store in a public housing development. But the council agreed 4-3 to drop its protest of the Quickstop proposal.
A state law passed in 2013 appears to limit any alcohol sales within an AHFC multiunit residential development to restaurants, which would prevent a liquor store, ABC Board director Cynthia Franklin said in a Nov. 10 memo to the board. She recommended the AC Quickstop application be denied.
The ABC Board had planned to hold a public meeting and take testimony in Bethel but canceled that because of litigation over the Bethel Spirits application. An appeal by the city is still before an administrative law judge but the council may decide to drop it, along with its request for reconsideration.