MOUNT PULASKI - The forecast for Sundays in Mount Pulaski soon will be wet.

 

 

 

The Mount Pulaski City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to end the city's dry run on Sunday liquor sales.

With no negative feedback and little feedback at all, the council saw no need to wait any longer to make the vote final.

"I've been asking people and most just don't give a care," said Alderman John Holmes.

The Sunday liquor sales would begin after liquor licenses are renewed at the beginning of July, making the first "wet" Sunday July 1.

Sunday package liquor sales would be allowed at Luda's and Johnson's Food Center starting at noon until the end of regular business hours.

Liquor sales will not include bars, Mayor Bill Glaze said, because they have not asked to be open on Sundays.

The issue arose soon after Dinger's Tap, located just outside city limits on State Route 54, closed in February because of well contamination. Because it wasn't in the city, it was allowed to sell package liquor on Sundays.

The council thought it would be beneficial for city residents to be able to buy liquor in town instead of having to travel to Lincoln or elsewhere.

Also Tuesday, the council voted to give the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition $600 plus construction expenses to erect a sign commemorating Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday.

The sign would be planted on the grounds of the Mount Pulaski Courthouse State Historic Site, and would be one of several to go up throughout the state.

The coalition had already collected about $2,900 of the $3,500 cost of the project. The group only had to come up with about one third of the total cost of the sign with the other two thirds being paid for by state grant money.

Coalition member Darrell Knauer said having one of the signs in Mount Pulaski would bring more attention to the city.

"There is going to be a national registry with these signs and when people take these tours they will go around and follow those," he said. "The sign will be the drawing point to this community."

The official bicentennial commemoration begins in February 2008 and closes February 2010.

On another matter, the council was also told that the Federal Emergency Management Agency gave the city almost $33,000 for December's ice storm. The money means the city will have received about $40,000 in storm relief.