Liquor-by-the-drink question on November ballot
Staff reporter
A resolution was approved Monday by Marion County Commission for a question to be placed on the November ballot regarding liquor-by-the-drink. A request to change county law to allow Sunday beer sales was denied.
Susan Robson, county attorney, presented the resolution and information to the commission.
The question voters will have the opportunity to answer in the November general election will be "Shall sale of alcoholic liquor by the individual drink in Marion County be allowed in public places where at least 30 percent of the gross receipts are from sales of food for consumption on the premises and prohibited in all other public places?"
By answering "yes," the voter is in favor of liquor-by-the-drink; by answering "no," the voter is not in favor of the question.
Sunday beer sales
The commission had asked Robson to provide information regarding the sale of cereal malt beverages on Sundays at Canada Bait and Tackle. Owner Warren Kreutziger had requested the county's permission to sell beer on Sunday from his business located Canada.
"Home rule allows Sunday beer sales," Robson explained. "You (commissioners) can decide for unincorporated areas within the county, and then cities can decide for themselves."
Commissioner Howard Collett asked the number of businesses this would affect, located in unincorporated areas within the county.
County clerk Carol Maggard answered "the only business that has a CMB (cereal malt beverage) license issued by the county is the Canada Bait shop."
Commission chairman Leroy Wetta asked the other commissioners if approving Sunday beer sales for unincorporated areas would put pressure on cities to change their laws.
Commissioner Bob Hein answered he did not understand why a person couldn't purchase beer on Saturday.
Collett agreed. "I hate to set a precedence," said Collett. "We have private clubs where a person can go and have a beer on Sunday. They just can't carry it out."
"Mr. Kreutziger is a good businessman," added Collett, "but I'm not ready to allow it."
The other commissioners agreed and approval was denied.
Commission recessed with Robson for a 10-minute executive session for attorney-client privilege.
The meeting reconvened with no decisions.
Landfill closure agreement
Following the review of a final agreement for closure of the county landfill, the commission tabled any action pending the gathering of more information.
This announcement was made following a 15-minute executive session with the county's landfill attorney, Steve Pigg.
More information will be gathered and presented to the commission at a later date.
Job description
A proposed county economic development coordinator position description was presented by Maggard to the commission for review and approval. The description was compiled from information provided by the commission-appointed task force.
As per the commission's request, Maggard said the description is "keeping education and experience to a bare minimum which will bring in the pay rate at a low level."
Maggard will present the description to the county's classification committee. Following the rating provided by the committee, the description will be sent to the League of Kansas Municipalities for pay scale information.
Part-time pay increases
The commission approved pay increases for part-time county employees.
A pay increase to $8 per hour for a part-time employee of the register of deeds office, and a pay increase to $7 per hour for a part-time county lake employee were approved.
The pay increases are comparable to other part-time county employees.
All part-time county employees who worked 250 hours or more during 2003 will be eligible for a two percent pay increase.
