Grand Marais City Administrator Mike Roth addressed the city council on April 15 and went over March and April liquor store numbers.
Due to Minnesota Governor Walz’s executive March 17 order, the local liquor store was closed for 13 days in March, said Roth, adding overall it was still a pretty good month.
Governor Walz ordered that all non-essential businesses close and liquor stores were deemed non-essential. The governor walked back the order on liquor stores and put them on the “essential” list so they could reopen.
Two days before closing, the sales totaled $26,000, with Tuesday, March 17, netting $18,000 and Wednesday, $8,000 before the closure. A typical Tuesday and Wednesday in March would bring in $3,000 to $4,000, Roth said.
Comparing 2017 to 2019 figures, Roth said the city would take in $58,000 from March 19 to March 31, the period the liquor store was closed. Still, March sales were only down $30,000 to $35,000 for the month.
Based on the three previous years of sales, weekly sales in April averaged $31,000. So far, the liquor store is averaging $28,000 per week in April, and Roth noted that there are no Sunday sales.
“So you can see that we are not that far behind,” previous years, said Roth.
Going forward, Roth said that if the city-owned liquor store stayed on a similar track for the year, sales would end up at 80 percent of past years. If that is the case, he said the “city could get by without much difficulty.”
Each year $200,000 is taken from liquor store proceeds and put into the city’s general budget, and even at 80 percent of “what we were hoping to do,” said Roth, would mean “We still should be able to give $200,000 to the city budget.”
If, however, there aren’t tourists in July and August, the most significant months of sales, and it’s only locals purchasing alcohol, the year could end up at 50 percent of sales, and “that would be very painful,” said Roth.
Councilor Tim Kennedy asked Roth what might happen if taxpayers couldn’t pay their property taxes?
“I received a memo from Braidy (Cook County Auditor/Treasurer Braidy Powers),” said Roth, indicating that the county was investigating allowing some leeway for people on the matter of paying property taxes.
For the short term, Mike said the city is financially okay. But if the pandemic becomes long-term, and the city loses revenue from the liquor store, recreation park, marina, and property taxes fall short, the city is vulnerable if everything will be hit, he said, adding at this time there was no way to make any predictions about what the future holds.
Anton Moody brought up Project Backstop, an $80,000 relief fund for businesses with six or fewer people. The grants can total $2,500 and be used to help pay employees, PUC bills, or other operating expenses. The Cook County EDA is handling the money, and applications can be made through Mary Sommnis at the EDA, said Moody.
Grand Marais Mayor Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux commented about the fire that destroyed three buildings that housed very viable businesses last week. Jay said a lot of people had reached out to help support the business owners via GoFundMe, and larger organizations, politicians, and groups from outside the city were looking for ways to help. He added he was glad that no one was hurt in the fire.
Councilor Kelly Swearengen commented on the excellent work the firefighters did in the face of a daunting, wind-driven fire. She said that if anyone wanted to donate to the firefighters to give to the Cook County Fire Chief fund. All of the money is split between the local firefighter crews and used for training.
Councilor Tim Kennedy, whose family owns the Picnic & Pine building that was burned down in the fire, said he appreciated the efforts of crews who came to help with the inferno, and the support his family has been given by the community. He noted that the three business owners were working on a plan to clean up the debris.
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