09-27-55 Council Special Minutes

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Special D;teeting ~ September 27, 1955 Commissioner that, tax forfeited property within its boundaries be withheld from public sale for municipal purposes. Upon motion by Nadeau, seconded by Spooner, it was "ItL5OLVh1), That the County Land Commissioner be requested to withhold from sale the property described in t. he foregoing resolution as dowered by water of Savage Lake,." fiyes - 5 Nays - 0 "Che resalution vras adopted, The Mayor l:>oint.ed out that the principal purpose of this speci.ai nree,ting was to decide how liquor should be dispensed in the Village of Little Canada. The various members of the Council dis- cussed at length the opinions given by members of the public who ap-• pearcd at the hearir.y on September 20, 1955. It appeared from the records of:' that meeting that; the persons present who favored the es- tablishment of a municipal liquor store were verycefinitely in the minority. Council members, upon being polled by the Clerlc as to whether or not they have had any further cornmunicat.ions from the pub- 7.ic generally or from any particular citizens on this subject of liquor since the September 20th meeting, all answered in the negative, The Mayor, however, stated that. he had received one anonymous letter stating that a conmrittee of thirty-three citizens of the Village were extending their appreciation for having had an opportunii:y t.o present views t.o the Councii at the September 20th meeting and that they urge the establishment of a municipal Liquor store. No names were included in the communication nor did anyone sign it. It was the general con- sensus of the Councii that the anonymous communication was relatively worthless. The Council went into the development of figures for the purpose of.' tryir;g to ascertain whether or not a municipal liquor store could succeed i.n the Village. It developed that at the present time the Viila.ge treasury is in good condition having a cash balance of approximately ${20,000 and that the budget for the ensuing year had been adopted providing for a general tax levy of ~j;B,500, the same amount as for tyre preceding year, It vans pointed out by some of the Council members that any effort to put: tfae Village in business at this time would require the expenditure of a sum at least three times that, of the existing cash balance and possibly a greater arnourrt. The Council generally felt that by, going into business and investing many thousands of dollars, the ultimate possibility of tax benefit to the local citizens could not be, more than the present taxes or $(£3,500 per year. It was estitrat.ed after considerable discussion,.ti~at the current cost of operat.iny a:~municipal liquor store would be approximately X610,000 per year. This would include estimatedsal.aries, rent and all other incidental expenses. In order to ma1Te a gross prof'iC of X610,000 it would be necessary to have gross sales during the year of y{150,000. Only after gross sales of~150,000 had been reached would it be possi- ble to ma.lse any net profit which would accrue to tl~e benefit of taxm payers. Hy selling an additional V6.50,000 worth of liquor the operation could conceivably net $~>10',000. If, on the other hand, the operation was not successful, and there were plenty of examples to substantiate the fact that sv.ch a business could not break even, then and in•that. case _ ~?