ELY – For the foreseeable future, the city of Ely will maintain three off-sale liquor stores, and will prohibit Sunday liquor sales when the state of Minnesota scraps the 159-year-old law later this summer.

On a 0-7 vote Tuesday night, City Council members voted against a request from the owners of Northern Grounds to sell specialty wines off-sale at their new coffee shop.

Meanwhile, Mayor Chuck Mayor said the city “has no incentive” to change the city ordinance allowing Sunday liquor sales of any kind in the city limits when it will be allowed starting in July.

Connie and Pat Coughlin, owners of Lakeshore Liquor, appeared before the council and spoke on behalf of the other two liquor stores in town, Mike’s Liquor and Wildlife Liquor. “We jointly oppose Northern Grounds having an off-sale liquor license,” Connie Coughlin said. “We are not allowed to sell any food, snacks, or baked goods. We want to maintain our current structure where we are protected. We are not allowed to sell alcohol on-site for customers to consume like Northern Grounds does. That would be an unfair advantage. Granting an off-sale license to a restaurant in town would be a slippery slope for other restaurants in town to do the same thing.”

She said that adding another off-sale liquor store in town would impact the three businesses already existing. “Selling liquor is a tough business,” Coughlin said. “Our (profit) margins are extremely low. If you start cutting into that pie with this or other liquor licenses you will lose a very stable environment from the three businesses that are sustainable and taxpaying, and are good for the town.”

By state law, Ely is allowed to have up to nine off-sale liquor establishments based on population. Council member Paul Kess wondered if the council has discretion to allow more off-sale liquor licenses if all conditions are met from the business.

Novak answered, “It is very difficult for a council to stop a legal business from doing business.”

City Attorney Kelly Klun concurred, “Generally speaking, if an individual comes before you and requests an off-sale liquor license, they would be granted one so long as all the requirements are met.”

Council members appeared to be wary of making any motion to deny or allow the off-sale license request from Northern Grounds. On the Novak’s third request, Kess made a motion to grant the request. Again, on the third try, Council member Ryan Callen spoke up to support the motion.

Council member Al Forsman repeated his concerns from the last council discussion on the issue. “I have no desire to go forward with this,” he said.

Paul Kess said he was hopeful the city could find a compromise on a small market niche request like Northern Grounds was proposing. “It seems difficult to do that, but I don’t think the council should be limiting competition like this.”

Novak said he was concerned with the possibility that other businesses in town would look for the same considerations as Northern Grounds. “I’m in favor of not taking action until we can figure out how to deal with that slippery slope. If we allow one, then every restaurant could ask for the same thing. We want to make a prudent decision that other councils can live with for a long time.”

After the vote to deny the request from Northern Grounds, Novak indicated that the issue could be brought back up. “A little bit of homework has to be done on this,” he said.

Sunday liquor sales

Ely Clerk-Treasurer Harold Langowski said the established off-sale liquor store owners all responded negatively to the state Sunday sales law set to go in effect on July 1.

Ely is a home-rule charter city and would be required to approve an ordinance allowing any change to off-sale rules.

“I appreciate that the liquor stores have responded and said they are not interested in Sunday sales, so that puts it to bed for the time being,” he said. “ At this time it is a moot issue.”

Ely residents and visitors continue to have the opportunity to purchase growlers of craft beer every day of the week at the city’s lone brewpub establishment. In addition, an on-sale and off-sale liquor establishment coperated in the city of Winton.

Other business

In other business, the council took the following action:

• Agreed with a recommendation from the Heritage Preservation Commission to call for proposals from commercial real estate firms to begin the process of marketing the sale of the Community Center;

• Accepted a proposal from Thomas R, Zahn, St. Paul, to complete the Reconnaissance Survey of the downtown district for $9,500;

• Authorized a moisture intrusion assessment proposal from Braun Intertec for the recently renovated City Hall building at a cost of $5,930;

• Accepted a leave of absence from Tim Riley from the Planning and Zoning Commission because of his interim position as the city’s zoning administrator;

• Approved a note and mortgage for Bryan and Alex Cole, 217 E. White St., for a rehabilitation loan for $7,000;

•Approved the amendments to the lighted advertising sign ordinance;

• OK’d changes to the city ordinance regulating disposal of refuse in city containers;

‰Tabled the approval of the Law Enforcement Labor Services contract until next month.