Rogers Leads In Liquor Permit Requests

Sunday, May 19, 2013

BENTONVILLE — Almost half of the liquor store permit requests in Benton County are for Rogers locations, according to the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division last week.

There are 55 permits up for grabs and 72 requests. The county was voted wet by residents in November.

The alcohol board met Wednesday, but didn’t set a date for a lottery drawing to determine what order requests will appear for hearings. Michael Langley, director of administration for the division, said the drawing will be sometime in June. Hearings will begin in July.

Rogers has the most requests with 31. Bentonville follows with 17 requests. Most of the county’s smaller towns such as Decatur and Garfield have between one and three permit requests each, according to the division’s final request report.

At A Glance

Permit Requests

Liquor store permits requests broken down by city:

• Rogers: 31

• Bentonville: 17

• Lowell: 5

• Siloam Springs: 4

• Bella Vista: 3

• Garfield: 3

• Gentry: 2

• Pea Ridge: 2

• Avoca, Centerton, Decatur, Highfill and Prairie Creek: 1 each

Source: Staff Report

The deadline for applications was April 30. Each applicant paid a $2,000 filing fee. Half is refundable if the permit request is denied.

State law allows one liquor permit per 4,000 people in each wet county. Benton County’s 221,339 population in the 2010 Census equates to one permit per 4,024 people. The county population would have to be 288,000 to accommodate all 72 requested permits.

The 4,000 person limit doesn’t apply to cities. Rogers 2010 population was 55,964 and has 31 liquor permit requests. If the 4,000 person limit applied to cities, Rogers would only qualify for 13 permits. Without the limit, however, all 31 could theoretically be approved.

That could be mitigated by a clause in state law that states permits must serve the “public convenience and advantage.” Factors used to determine convenience include the number and types of permits in the area, sustainability of the location and building, impact on churches or schools and local opposition, according to the division’s rule book. A final factor is the lack of diversity in ownership permits and financial interest in the surrounding area.

Of the 72 permit applications, 16 are from family groups. State law bans one person from holding more than one liquor permit or holding a financial interest in more than one liquor store.

The law reads, “No retail liquor permit shall be issued, either as a new permit or as a replacement of an existing permit, to any person, firm or corporation if the person, firm or corporation has any interest in another retail liquor permit, regardless of the degree of interest.”

Chuck Simmons applied for a permit, as did his parents, Charles and Patsy Simmons. The applications were separate and weren’t considered as a group, Chuck Simmons said.

“I just happened to own a piece of commercial property that I thought would be good for a store,” he said. “They happened to have property, too.”

Charles and Patsy Simmons own Susie-Q-Malt Shop in Rogers. The husband and wife filed their permit applications for stores in Rogers on the same day. Chuck Simmons filed his for a store in Pea Ridge later.

The Hasenbeck family has four applications from Aimee, James Bob, Heath and Natalie Hasenbeck, all filed April 30. Three of the stores they’ve applied for have similar names — Bentonville Wine and Spirits, Rogers Wine and Spirits and Bella Vista Wine and Spirits. State law doesn’t allow franchising in liquor stores and bans sharing a name or logo.

Sarah Gildehaus, wife of Macadoodle’s owner Roger Gildehaus, took that to heart when filing her application for a liquor permit for a store at 3700 Rainbow Road in Bentonville. The store would be named Guess Who to avoid a reference to the Missouri Macadoodle’s chain.