Watertown City Council delays action on liquor license renewal for local convenience store (Audio)

November 1, 2021
Mike Tanner

WATERTOWN, S.D.–The Watertown City Council wants more information from the applicants of an off-sale liquor license renewal before signing off on it.

On Monday night, the council discussed the renewal for the northside Cowboy Country Store.

That store failed an alcohol compliance check conducted by police on September 29th by selling alcohol to an underage person.

The store did not have any representatives at Monday night’s council meeting to answer questions about the violation, or discuss whether any changes have been made to prevent it from happening again. But they were not informed by the city that they should have a representative at the meeting.

The council did not reject the application, but talked about postponing action on it until a later date.

Additionally, they don’t want to punish the store by requiring them to submit another application, and have to pay another application fee.

Councilman Mike Danforth…

The application will be discussed again November 15th, when the store will have a representative at the meeting.

Also on Monday night, the council approved a Malt Beverage and South Dakota Farm Wine License for Walmart.