The Kodiak City Council and the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly are working together to let more local restaurants serve beer and wine. Currently, state rules cap the number of Restaurant or Eating Place Licenses or REPLs available in Kodiak at four.
Half are not currently in use. Noodles, Aquamarine, Peking/Sizzler Burger and Chinese Restaurant, and Second Floor restaurant own the four licenses with Peking and Second Floor currently not in operation.
Last year, the city asked state regulators to increase its cap to 10 licenses. The state Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office said no, the city isn’t qualified under state law, specifically citing state statute 04.11.405.
Neither is the Kodiak Island Borough.
However, Borough Manager Aimee Williams told the council and assembly during a joint meeting Tuesday night, Feb. 4, that through a joint application, she thinks they would qualify.
“The problem that we are facing is they [the state] want the Borough to have a police force, which we don’t have, so we can’t ask for more. And they want the City to have planning powers, which they don’t have, so they can’t have more [licenses]," she explained. "So we really need to work out something with them that shows we are working together, it’s the same people, same area. And we deserve more licenses, not just for tourism but for the residents who live here.”
But Kodiak isn’t in charge of its own destiny as the state Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office makes the final decision based on current Alaska laws.
Williams said she believes the state would consider a joint application from the borough and the city to increase the local number of licenses in Kodiak.
"Because that is the only way that we can serve the amount of people that are really on the road system using our restaurants and our places that would want those [licenses]. It’s not just the bubble that is the city population, it’s everyone who lives on the road system," Williams said.
Another option to increase the number of local licenses is to have state law changed. The city’s acting manager, Josie Bahnke, told the two groups Tuesday night that city officials hope to discuss that possibility with state legislators next month.
In related news, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board considered a local license transfer and renewal earlier on the same day, Feb. 4. The borough protested the Second Floor restaurant’s license renewal last month since it has not been used in several years.
The restaurant is also in the middle of transferring its REPL to another restaurant in town, Nuniaq Café.
Both actions remain pending as the state ABC Board tabled those items during its meeting on Feb. 4. The deadline for local municipalities or nearby business owners to submit a protest of the license transfer is March 9.
Williams said a special meeting will be scheduled between the state ABC Board and Kodiak’s two municipal governments sometime after that.
