Liquor license holders now can sell alcohol on a single, specific Sunday, after the Jefferson City Council approved an amendment to the city's alcoholic beverage code Monday.
Active liquor license holders can apply to the city's Liquor Control Board for an additional license to sell alcohol by the individual drink on a specific Sunday from 11 a.m.-midnight, according to the ordinance. The licensee must tell the Liquor Control Board which Sunday he or she plans to sell alcohol.
Margie Mueller, Jefferson City's finance director and a Liquor Control Board member, said the code allows annual Sunday sales liquor licenses.
Liquor licensees currently close their businesses between 1:30 a.m. Sunday and 6 a.m. Monday. Restaurants that conduct business in one room and provide "substantial qualities" of food and merchandise along with alcohol can remain open on Sundays, but the licensees have to lock refrigerators, cabinets and cases from which alcohol is dispensed, the city code states.
Liquor licensees can sell alcohol on Super Bowl Sunday and on Sundays falling on New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, St. Patrick's Day or Independence Day.
The single, specific Sunday liquor license application is $50.
Mueller said the amendment was proposed because business owners were interested in selling alcohol on the Sunday before the Aug. 21 solar eclipse.
"There were some restaurants that were normally closed on Sundays - so they didn't have a Sunday liquor sales license - that are going to open up the whole weekend to accommodate all the visitors in town and they wanted to be able to sell alcohol as well," she said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Mueller had not received any applications but expects to receive them soon.
In other action at Monday's City Council meeting:
The council approved several vehicle purchase and equipment requests after the city had $136,575 in unused salt (ice melt) funds for the 2016-17 year. Britt Smith, Jefferson City Public Works operations division director, said the city did not use all the budgeted money for salt because of the mild winter.
Smith requested the leftover funds be used to purchase vehicles and equipment, as well as add to the street materials budget.
Three pink sheet requests submitted to the city's Budget Committee were funded by this excess money. The city will replace a plow truck for $65,849 and a 3/4-ton pickup for $27,028. It will also purchase a concrete buster for $6,114.
Four snowplow blades will be purchased for $27,424.
The remaining $10,160 will go into the street materials budget.
The council approved a $404,245 change order to the SAK Construction contract. The city authorized a $2.1 million contract with the company in February for the Basin 13 sewer main rehabilitation project, which would replace sanitary and storm sewer mains.
The change order would allow SAK Construction to replace additional storm sewer and sanitary mains. The company will replace failing storm sewer mains on Eastland and Hillsdale drives and East McCarty Street, according to city documents. The company would replace failing sanitary sewer on U.S. 54 and a second ailing storm sewer on Hillsdale Drive.
The council approved a $94,680 contract with Alelco Inc. to upgrade the Walnut Pump Station controls. The controls are considered "obsolete," according to an email from the city's Wastewater Division Director Eric Seaman.
The council approved a contract with M&M Landscaping and Construction for $399,785. The company will replace a sanitary sewer main that is undersized and more than 110 years old as part of the Basin 14 Relief Sewer-West McCarty project.
The council renewed a $224,000 contract with All Seasons Landscaping and Constructions for a yard waste drop-off site and composting services. The current contract began in November 2013 and is a five-year agreement that requires yearly renewals.