The Polk County Commissioners voted unanimously in favor of lowering the on-sale liquor fee for restaurants and bars under county jurisdiction. Polk County Director of Property Records Michelle Cote brought the fees before the board to consider a change given that businesses are operating at a fraction of their average volume during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cote said she was happy to see the board make a proactive decision. “I was very happy to see them take a proactive decision that recognizes the issues that all of the bars and restaurants are having right now,” said Cote. “We’re in an unfortunate time where there are a lot of things impacted.”
The County issues four types of liquor licenses annually, on-sale, off-sale, 3.2-off-sale, and Sunday sales, explained Cote. “Our liquor license fiscal year is June 4 to June 4 of each year,” said Cote. “The county board prior to me set fees for our main licenses. Our three main licenses are the on-sale, off-sale, and 3.2-off-sale. So, our on-sale license fee was $1,200, off-sale was $500, the 3.2-off-sale is $100, and then our Sunday sales is $100. So, in light of everything that we have going on in light of COVID-19 and the lack of ability to function normally, I thought it was a relevant conversation. There are statutory limits for what the fees can be; they just can’t exceed that.”
The change in liquor license fees affects businesses such as the Snow Sled Inn, that don’t under the jurisdiction of another liquor ordinance said, Cote. “The discussion was focused on perhaps providing a little bit of relief for these businesses that are functioning at a fraction of their normal volume,” said Cote. “So, the board did decide to cut in half the on-sale fee, which went from $1,200 to $600, and the other fees remain the same. And they did ask that we come back next year at this time and review the fees again. These are for places that are outside of a municipality or an area that doesn’t have a liquor ordinance. So, like the City of Crookston manages their own. They set their fees; they manage their licenses. The City of East Grand Forks is the same, so for example, one of the licenses we issue is for the Snow Sled Inn in Gentilly because they are outside of a municipality or an area that has a liquor ordinance.”
Additionally, Cote discussed the ability of the license center to process registrations and titles without face-to-face interaction and how truck licensing for the agricultural community is being handled via email. “DVS has reviewed the governor’s order about the ability for the deputy registrar offices to be open and said we could be open,” said Cote. “They said that we could be open to process registration, title transfers, and duplicate titles without being face-to-face. So, our answer to that was we have a dropbox on the outside of the government center, 612 N Broadway. And when people drop things in, we ask them to make sure we have a phone number, current insurance with the company and policy number, a current address, and that the payment is exact. Sometimes if we are missing one of those things, it makes it difficult to process. We have somebody coming into the office every morning to process these things. The way for people to contact us is at licensecenter@co.polk.mn.us. And as our person comes in during the morning to take care of everything that’s in the dropbox, they will be reaching out for questions to our agricultural community that has emailed us about getting their trucks licensed. It’s not a beautiful system, but it is better than nothing.”
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