Vincennes City Council discusses liquor licenses and fire department budget

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LIQUOR LICENSE ORDINANCE

 

The Vincennes City Council has approved on final reading an ordinance establishing the boundaries for the new municipal Riverfront Development project. The purpose of the ordinance is to encourage new restaurants to locate along Main Street and Downtown areas.

The ordinance gives the city authority to issue 10 liquor licenses within the boundaries of the Riverfront Development Project. Yochum emphasized that the licenses will only be issued to those businesses who sell food and will not be used to establish more taverns within the zone.

The Vincennes Redevelopment Commission will review the applications and make recommendations to the Mayor and City Council. The business owners will pay the city an annual fee of 12-hundred dollars or 100 dollars a month in order to obtain the liquor license.

The funds generated by the fee will then be used to promote and market downtown Vincennes.

Once the city has reviewed them the applications still must be reviewed and approved by the state Alcohol and Beverage Commission.

Yochum says other cities like South Bend and Fort Wayne have been successful in bringing commerce back into their downtown district as the result of establishing these riverfront zones.


 

FIRE DEPARTMENT BUDGET

The Vincennes City Council transferred funds to help the city’s fire department close out 2016 in the black.
Mayor Joe Yochum says the fire department has experienced a shortfall in their budget for the past several years.
He says the resolution passed by the council last night will transfer 360-thousand dollars from EDIT funds to the Fire Department.


Yochum hopes that the circuit breakers which were put in place by the Indiana General Assembly will have less of an impact on the fire department this coming year.
The circuit breakers were put in place by the Indiana General Assembly to cap on the amount of money local units of govenment can raise through property taxes.