By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
At the recommendation of Village of East Troy Police Chief Alan Boyes, the Village Board voted Monday to deny Troy Liquor owner, A.M. Sons Inc., an alcohol beverage license and an operator license for the liquor store on the downtown square.
“During my investigation for renewal of the licenses, I found some things where they were untrustworthy,” Boyes said Monday night.
He mentioned some “pending cases” in Walworth County, but didn’t want to elaborate on them at the meeting, saying if a hearing about the licenses came about he would tell the board more about those cases at that time.
“Based on our ordinances on truth and reliability, I don’t think they’re a good fit at this time,” Boyes told the board.
Village attorney Linda Gray said if the licenses were denied by the board, the village would have to give written notice to Troy Liquor and if they chose, they could request a public hearing to appeal the decision.
In a memo to the board, dated April 29, Boyes outlined his concerns with the business and the “honesty of the application for the liquor license.”
Boyes said as part of his investigation he is required to do for the issuance or renewal of liquor licenses, he discovered “violations of Wisconsin statutes have been occurring at Troy Liquor or in the furtherance of the business.”
He stated in the memo that the violations have been referred to the District Attorney’s Office for charging by special agents of the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.
“In addition, while reviewing the application and case reports obtained from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue the honesty of the application for the liquor license is in question. Specifically who is the owner of the Troy Liquor?” Boyes wrote in the memo.
The application for the license was submitted by Ms. (Panja) Soni, according to Boyes’ memo. “However, all business appears to be to be conducted by or with the permission of Mr. (Ashish) Patel,” Boyes wrote. “In a statement to special agents of Wisconsin Department of Revenue, he claims to be the owner of the business. The board will recall Mr. Patel and his father were denied licenses due to violations of law and honesty of completing prior applications.”
Boyes states in the memo he believes Troy Liquor to be owned an operated by Patel using Soni as a “front person” to obtain the required license to operate the business.
The liquor license in effect for Troy Liquor expires on June 30. Village Board Trustee Dusty Stanford asked what would happen if the hearing wasn’t held before then.
Soni was at the board meeting with Attorney Pat Hudec, who said as soon as they received written notice they would file an appeal to get the ball rolling on a hearing.
Cooling things off
The Village Board approved the recommendation from Department of Public Works Director Mike Miller to redesign and rebid the replacement of the HVAC system for the Village Hall. They will need to seek the services of professionals within the area to make this a reality, so research is a key factor here. Searching for something similar to a HVAC contractor in Utah, but within their local area, will be a good start as they can whittle down the competition as they want to make the right choice with this much money on the line.
In a memo to the board, dated, dated April 21, Miller recapped the timeline on the project, which began last year.
“Early in the project development, J.M. Brennan advised replacement of the existing HVAC systems with two rooftop units would cost in the range of $250,000,” Miller wrote.
Strand Associates Inc. prepared preliminary drawings and met with J.M. Brennan to review system design and to obtain updated budgetary costs in December 2014.
The project was bid early in 2015 and only two bids were received. JMB did not bid the project, saying it had too much work at the time and all local area mechanical contractors were busy.
The average bid was $480,000 for the new HVAC system, almost twice what the village expected.
Strand Associates recommends redesigning of the system with the same number of zones as originally designed but using one air-handling unit instead of two and some other changes to bring down the cost. It was also recommended to the board that the rebidding process be held off until the fall, when the contractors typically experience a slow down.
Trustee Forty Renucci was concerned with possible roof work being done in the winter months, but the representative from Strand said they would time it so that work was completed before the cold weather arrived.
