July 14, 2025 Local Stories in and Around St. Joseph, Illinois

New type of liquor license up for vote at St. Joseph Village Board

On Tuesday night, the St. Joseph Village Board will discuss and vote on whether to create a new liquor license.

The license would be a package and pour license, which would allow video gambling in businesses that already have a package license.

Mayor Tami Fruhling-Voges said that Jack Flash, located at 303 E. Warren St., and the St. Joseph IGA, located at 205 N Main St., have shown interest in the new license.
The license classification would strictly be for the purpose of allowing that business to have the ability to offer video gaming.

Illinois State statute says that in order to have video gaming, an establishment must have a liquor license that allows drinks to be available for consumption on the premises.
Fruhling-Voges said the license would have restrictions and guidelines that would have to be met, including the amount of alcohol served and how much of the business’s income was derived from video gaming. 

“We are looking into other communities that have these types of classifications and considering all the pros and cons of adding additional video gaming in the community,” she said.

Fruhling-Voges said there is currently one business in town, Roch’s, that has video gaming. Roch’s, located at 101 N. Main St., has four machines. The village made $13,000 in 2019 from those machines.

“There are many things to consider,” Fruhling-Voges said, “but because we currently allow video gaming at our restaurants that serve alcohol, we also need to consider whether or not to open that opportunity to other businesses that sell alcohol as well.”
Income from the machines is placed in the village’s storm water fund and used strictly for that purpose. 

Fruhling-Voges said there is no way to know how much more money the village could make by allowing more businesses to house gaming machines, but it is safe to assume the village is losing revenue to neighboring villages that have more machines.
“Ogden, which is only five miles to the east, has 27 machines in their community,” she said.

Ogden Village Clerk Jennifer Bowman said the village’s total income from video gaming varies month to month, but in 2019 they earned almost $40,000 from video gaming.

Fruhling-Voges said that if the board tries to create the new license, the classification restrictions and guidelines will be given to the village attorney to create the new license. The license will only be available to the number of package liquor licenses currently in the village. 

Any new business would have to apply for a license. 

The mayor currently is the liquor commissioner and is the person who oversees and enforces the liquor license requirements.   

The village board meets Tuesday at 7 p.m. at village hall, located at 207 E. Lincoln Street.

Banner
Related Posts

Village details plan for storm cleanup

July 4, 2023

July 4, 2023

The Village of St. Joseph has a plan for storm cleanup. Residents need to have their storm-damaged limbs and brush...

Study looks at economic impact of hotel in village

April 1, 2024

April 1, 2024

A hotel feasibility study has found that a hotel is sustainable in the Village of St. Joseph.  The study, conducted...

Foundation wants Community Building at Woodard Park

July 22, 2024

July 22, 2024

A foundation has been created to bring a community building to St. Joseph. The St. Joseph Recreation Foundation was registered...

Haan hopes to help Ogden grow

March 31, 2021

March 31, 2021

Jim Haan wants to help Ogden grow.  “Ogden is a safe, affordable, and friendly town and I want to keep...

Talk of the Town….. with Gabe Clements

September 5, 2019

September 5, 2019

Every week we ask a village trustee, mayor, school board member or administrator three questions. This week we talked to...

Live at St. Joseph Village Board, April 11

April 11, 2023

April 11, 2023

The mayor is doing a proclamation declaring April as Autism Awareness Month. Doing the general stuff they always do- bills,...

Village Board to continue discussing sewer rate increase

March 26, 2019

March 26, 2019

The St. Joseph Village Board is expected to continue discussing the timeline for the upcoming sewer rate increase roll out...

Village hires administrator

June 24, 2021

June 24, 2021

The Village of St. Joseph has its administrator.During its June 22 meeting the village board voted to hire Joseph Hackney....

Live at Ogden Village Board, Oct. 7, 2021

October 7, 2021

October 7, 2021

There are five people in the audience at Ogden tonight. This never happens. Unless they are discussing chickens. Two are...

Live at St. Joseph Village Board, Sept. 12, 2023

September 12, 2023

September 12, 2023

I am here so you don’t have to be. You can also watch on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaZTvOv74EG4Sag_LrRDdcQ Dan Davis and Jim...

Hometown appeal: The Wheelhouse earns Business of the Year honors

April 16, 2019

April 16, 2019

When the Wheelhouse opened in 2017, it was unlike anything in St. Joseph. And still is. The farm-to-table restaurant owned...

Village accepting bids for Boy Scout building

August 5, 2022

August 5, 2022

A piece of St. Joseph history will be sold. The village board is moving forward with selling the “Boy Scout...

Email billing to start next month for sewer

July 28, 2022

July 28, 2022

Starting next month St. Joseph residents can get their sewer bills in their email. The paperwork to sign up is...

Live at St. Joseph Village Board March 23, 2021

March 23, 2021

March 23, 2021

We are here. This could be a pretty amazing meeting. LIQUOR LICENSE TIME. We are moving the agenda around so...

Live at St. Joseph Village Board, Dec. 14, 2021

December 14, 2021

December 14, 2021

I am here so you don’t have to be. This time about five years ago Bob Rigdon and BJ Hackler...

Comments
Leave a Reply