Editorial: Liquor store decision is disappointing

Talk about it

A few weeks ago in this space we laid out the reasons we thought moving Farmington’s city-owned downtown liquor store to a new location on Highway 3 was a good idea. At the time, it appeared city council members agreed, having voted to direct city administrator David McKnight to prepare a lease for the new location in the Tamarack Ridge shopping center.

We still believe in the benefits of the move, but it appears at least one city council member has had a change of heart. On Monday, the council agreed to a new, five-year lease to keep the liquor store in its current location.

The decision is one more example of a city council that appears to struggle making up its mind, and it is problematic for several reasons.

Sometime between the city council’s workshop meeting last month and Monday’s official decision Tom Wartman, owner of the building where the liquor store is currently located, agreed to reduce the rent he had previously offered the city. That’s good news for the city’s bottom line. But Wartman had the advantage of seeing the rent offered at Tamarack Ridge before he made his final offer. If Tamarack Ridge’s owners had a similar opportunity to adjust their offer based on Wartman’s rate, it did not come at a public meeting. If we were in that position, we’d be upset at the way the offers played out.

City council members chided Wartman for his actions, but that disappointment clearly wasn’t enough to change the majority’s minds.

There are valid arguments for keeping the liquor store where it is. The new location would have required renovations to prepare it for business. It would have been a disruption. But for an example of the impact that kind of move can have, you don’t have to look further than Pellicci’s Ace Hardware, which has seen increased business since it moved from its spot next to the liquor store to a new location on Highway 3.

It seems clear that the current liquor store location is not working. The store struggles to turn a profit, and the city is not seeing the kind of business it wanted. Changing locations seemed like an obvious way to address that.

Tags: opinion, farmington, editorials