Joliet council wary of gas station gambling proposal

A proposal to cap the number of gas stations that can have on-site gambling and drinking to two is facing pushback from Joliet City Council members, including the mayor, who said Monday it was unlikely the city could control the numbers.

Two new liquor licenses – one allowing drinking and gambling at two gas stations and another allowing packaged liquor sales at all of them – go to the council for a vote on Tuesday.

But Councilman Joe Clement said at the council’s Monday workshop meeting that he believed the city is “pushing this a little too fast. I think it needs to be vetted a little more.”

Clement and others questioned the city’s ability to cap the number of liquor-and-gambling licenses to two, which is a cap set in the ordinance that would create the license.

“This is not going to be the end,” Clement said. “There are 39 gas stations. They are going to be beating down our door to try to get this license.”

The proposed license was created to settle a dispute that followed the council’s divided vote a year ago approving an agreement allowing a new Thornton’s gas station at Jackson and Collins streets to get a license for liquor and video gambling in exchange for a $300,000 contribution to the relocation of the 19th Century Casseday House. The house was located on the gas station site and otherwise slated for demolition.

Mayor Bob O’Dekirk, who also serves as the city’s liquor commissioner, opposed the agreement at the time, pointing to the number of gas stations wanting liquor licenses. A city ordinance dating to the 1980s generally prohibits liquor sales at gas stations.

“There were plenty of voices saying, ‘Don’t do this. You’re going to be opening up this can of worms,’” O’Dekirk said Monday.

He called the situation “a mess that shouldn’t have been created. But five members of the council voted this way.”

Councilman Larry Hug, who also voted against the Thornton’s deal, called it “the headache that’s going to keep on giving.”

Hug commended the city’s legal staff for trying to work out a solution. But, he said, “It’s not going to solve the problem. It’s going to go to court.”

The second license allowing gambling and drinking at a gas station would go to Terry Lambert’s Mobil station at Broadway and Theodore streets if it is approved Tuesday.

Lambert won an appeal to the Illinois Liquor Commission after he sought a license that would allow liquor and gambling at his gas station following the Thorntons deal but was denied by the city.

Another gas station owner appeared before the council Monday and said he wants a license that would allow on-site liquor consumption and video gambling at his station.

Michael Mikuska, who owns the BP station at 1415 Plainfield Road, said he would not be pouring liquor but only serving canned beer to customers if he got the license.

“But more importantly,” Mikuska said, “it allows us to get video gaming.”