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CENTRE — Business owners here who want to take advantage of the city's new alcohol ordinance may begin doing so soon, Mayor Tony Wilkie told The Post last week.

The Centre City Council approved the 29-page ordinance Jan. 25 by a vote of 6-1.

With passage, and following official publication of the ordinance, restaurant and convenience store owners can pick up a copy of the ordinance and an application when City Hall opens at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

Wilkie said he expects beer, wine and liquor to begin showing up on store shelves and dinner menus at “eight to 10” existing local businesses around the first of March, provided owners follow the proper procedure, which he laid out in some detail.

“When someone comes to City Hall, we will give them an application along with the full ordinance,” Wilkie explained. “We will also give then the number of the Alabama Beverage Control agent for this area.”

Wilkie said the business owner will have to contact the ABC agent in order to acquire a separate state application to sell alcohol.

“When they return to City Hall to file that form, we will take both applications and make sure the names are the same on both,” Wilkie said. “Then they will pay the city's $300 filing fee.”

Next, the application will be presented to the city's new alcohol license review committee, which will be made up of three citizens appointed by the City Council.

“Those appointments will be made at the next meeting of the City Council,” Wilkie said. “And what we will do is meet as often as needed right now, to try and accommodate everyone who wants a license.”

Council members will have at least 11 applicants to choose from at their next meeting on Feb. 8.

After the committee reviews and approves the application, it will be presented to the City Council at its next meeting for final approval.

“If the Council approves that application, the very next day we will provide a letter stating that decision, which the ABC then requires be submitted to them by the applicant,” Wilkie said.

Wilkie said after subjecting the applicant to an FBI background check and approving the application, the ABC Board will then issue a license to sell alcohol.
All that remains for the applicant after a thumbs-up from the state of Alabama is one final trip back to Centre City Hall.

“At that point we will issue a license from the city, on the spot,” Wilkie said. “They can pay their fees, and as soon as they walk out they are legal to sell alcohol in Centre.”

Wilkie said the city's fees will vary based on the type of business and the categories of alcohol to be sold there.

Wilkie declined to offer any financial projections but said the Council and the police department are determined to make Centre's experiment in legal alcohol sales a success.

“We are not going to tolerate any problems,” Wilkie said. “Anything like that will be dealt with, period. Let's make that perfectly clear.”