Taxi Service

Ace Taxi Service is requesting a taxicab business license from the city.  Their presentation will be at 1:30 this Thursday afternoon. Not really sure why anyone needs a license to drive a person from one location to another but there you are:

A public hearing regarding an application from Kevin Samuel, Carl Barnett, & David Woods d/b/a Ace Transportation at 319 North Illinois Avenue, requesting a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (Taxicab Business License) will be held in Conference Room A at the Carbondale City Hall/Civic Center on Thursday, December 4, 2014 at 1:30 p.m.

Liquor Code Changes?

Caught this in the Southern today. The change to the liquor laws allowing wine tastings at farmer's markets and microbreweries and distilleries to sell their product without having to have a certain percentage of food sales makes sense.  Any wine tastings at farmer's markets would have to abide by the same regulations as tastings conducted on the winery's own premises so I assume they would check IDs before allowing samples.

Eliminating the food requirement from microbreweries and distilleries also makes sense as the current requirement for a class A license requires them to shift focus to food preparation, not their area of specialization.  None of the other classes of liquor licenses fit microbrewers and distillers, which sell both by the drink and by the package.  Rewiting the Class H license to include them makes sense and would allow the city to encourage the development of a fast growing segment of the industry.   We already have a number of top drawer wineries in the area, let's encourage some high quality microbrewers as well.

Liquor Sales

The Southern has an article looking at the effect last summer's change to liquor licensing has had on local beer and wine retailers.  I found it interesting that they talked to three of the four local businesses that started selling beer and wine but only one that sold it prior to the addition of the new licenses.  Maybe the article didn't want any more "sales have been down by 25%" quotes in the store.