Eau Claire City Council approves liquor licenses, postpones final decision on two other items

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) -Changes to the city’s borders, a national company looking to build and the future of two liquor licenses came before Eau Claire’s City Council Tuesday night.

Around two weeks ago, the city attorney’s office recommended the city council revoke two liquor licenses held by one company: Pizza Plus LLC.

It owns The Plus, Rev and Lounge on Barstow Street and The Metro on Lake Street.

At Tuesday’s meeting the city attorney’s office changed its recommendation.

“Staff now recommends the renewal of both licenses,” said Jenessa Stromberger, the assistant city attorney. “If the terms of the contract are not met, meaning they are open at The Plus as described by the contract on Sept. 1 and at The Metro by May 2023, then those licenses are surrendered.”

With that contract in place, council members did approve those liquor licenses.

The city council also considered a proposal from Purple Rain Properties, a development company with Niagara Waters, looking to build a water bottling facility on the city’s northwest side.

“We are family owned and operated, so what that means is that when we make investment in a community, we are not making an investment for our shareholders that don’t exist, we’re making an investment on behalf of the family for the long term,” said Khristopher Ward with Niagara Bottling at the meeting.

As designed, the proposed plant could bottle a maximum of 306 million gallons of water a year.

Some council members are concerned about what that impact could have on the city’s water.

“We represent the 70,000 people who live here now, but I think we represent those people in the future too,” said Kate Beaton, a city council at-large member. “We owe it to them to protect this resource, and I do not want our legacy to be, you know, desperate for water in Eau Claire 50 years from now.”

City officials said the public water system does have the capacity to support both the community’s needs and those of the plant.

A 2014 study by a Chippewa Fall firm showed: “They indicated that we could fully build out abutting townships to the City of Eau Claire, fully build them out, serve them with water, and our aquifer would not be negatively impacted,” said Lane Berg, the City of Eau Claire’s Utilities Manager.

The city council voted to postpone its decision on this plant until the June 14 meeting.

It also voted to postpone making a final decision on a land annexation proposal called the Stewart-Hauge.

A vote on that is now scheduled for June 14.

If approved, the city’s border would extend farther south.

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