Holiday Inn, Bluffs miss liquor license deadline

La Crosse Tribune, May 26, 1995 by White, Bill

The Fourth of July holiday. may be dry at four La Crosse watering holes, including the Holiday Inn and the city-owned The Bluffs Country Club.

Their liquor licenses expire June 30 and, they missed the 5 p.m. Wednesday deadline to apply for renewal, City Clerk Teri Lehrke said Thursday.

Lehrke said the others were the Pettibone Park Resort, 333 Park Plaza Drive, and the newly opened Black River Brewery in Powell Place at Main and Second streets.

Alden Corp. of Denver, Colo., owns the Holiday Inn, 529 Park Plaza Dive, and operates The Bluffs, the former La Crosse County Club, under a special contract with the city.

Lehrke said Alden controller Kurt Schwartz, who also manages The Bluffs, did not contact her before the deadline.

"I have a message to call him at 9 o'clock Friday morning," she said Thursday night. "I can only tell him what the law says."

She said Wisconsin law requires license holders to file their applications and $405 fee at least 15 days before the Common Council can vote on them.

The applications could be approved in a special council meeting before June 30, but a 1981 resolution still in effect prohibits the council from calling a special meeting specifically for the purpose of voting on liquor license renewals, she said.

Alden and the other businesses can apply for renewal of their Class B beer and liquor licenses at anytime, but they could not be approved until the July 13 meeting of the council, Lehrke said. That would mean the establishments could not sell alcohol for at least he first two weeks of July, she said. "I'd say it creates a problem for them," she said.

She said all liquor license holders were notified in March that the licenses expire as of midnight June 30 and that he council would vote on all renewals on June 8.

Black River Brewery owner Tom Jicha of Minneapolis said Thursday night he was unaware of the problem and was speechless about the effect on his new brew pub business.

"I'll have to get a hold of Teri (Friday) to see what we can do," Jicha said from his home.

Attempts to reach Swartz and the Pettibone Park Resort co-owner Paul Pretasky were unsuccessful Thursday night.