Disgruntled Brewery granted liquor licenses

In one of the final hurdles toward the opening of Perham’s newest local business, the City Council approved an on-sale taproom license, Sunday license and brewer off-sale license for Disgruntled Brewery, LLC at its Monday night meeting.

There were no comments from the audience during the brief public hearing held prior to the council’s approval of the licenses.

According to the documentation approved by the council, the licensure will allow the brewery owned by Brett Doebbeling, Andrew Pettow and Craig Salmela to sell both on and off sale liquor, including growlers on Sundays, from Feb. 1 of this year through Jan. 31, 2017.

A post on the company’s Facebook states proudly, “We’re officially the 94th fully licensed brewery in the state of Minnesota!”

Located at 735 2nd St. NE, in Perham’s northeast industrial park, the 5,000-square-foot building incorporates a 1,000-square-foot taproom as well as 4,000 square feet of brewery space. A wide variety of beers will be available once the business officially opens, from dark stout to toasted blond, as well as a new seasonal beer brewed fresh each month.

Also at Monday’s meeting, the council approved an amendment to the city’s recently revised tobacco ordinance that will allow businesses selling “vaping” or electronic cigarette products to offer samplings to their customers.

Speaking in favor of the amendment were representatives of the local business Masterpiece Vapors; a spokesperson for the company said during the hearing that if no sampling were allowed, it would basically put them out of business.

Representatives from the local Boys and Girls Club - which has actively been engaged in campaigning against the use of tobacco and e-cigarettes - spoke out against the amendment, but it passed by unanimous vote.

Council member Jim Johnson noted that while the city has been “very aggressive” in making its parks and public facilities tobacco and e-cigarette free, sampling the merchandise inside a store specifically geared toward the sale of e-cigarettes and vaping products “is a little different.”

At the same time, he urged the Boys and Girls Club members present at the meeting, “don’t give up the fight” when it comes to preventing tobacco use.

A hearing was also held at Monday’s council meeting regarding proposed street and utility improvements on Coney Street East.

City Engineer Jade Berube presented the preliminary engineering report on the pro-posed $1,191,000 project, which is slated to begin this summer.

The city has obtained a $750,000 Local Road Improvement Program grant from the Minnesota Department of Transportation that will fund the bulk of the project. That leaves about $264,000 to be paid by the city, with approximately $177,000 to be assessed to the property owners.

“That comes out to be about $37 a foot for the street improvements, and $3,500 each hookup for water service,” Berube said.

Council members questioned whether it would be necessary to completely close down the street during construction.

“The answer is yes,” Berube responded. “There’s really no way to build anything there without shutting down the road. To keep a portion of it open would add considerably to the cost.”