SPANISH FORK — There will be no beer sales at the Macey's grocery store during the first two weeks of October, which is expected to cost the store $18,000 in sales revenue, but it is also a merciful resolution to a situation that could have kept coolers empty for six months.

The City Council opted on Tuesday to shorten the store's punishment for two instances of selling beer to minors during police stings based on a change in city ordinance eliminating a mandatory six-month beer license suspension and the store's pro-active program to train its employees regarding beer sales.

A six-month suspension could have cost the store $250,000 in revenues, according to Bill Summers, the store manager.

The two violations, one inadvertent and the other purposeful, occurred in May and July. Under a city ordinance in effect at the time, stores accruing two violations within a one-year period were subject to a mandatory six-month suspension of their beer license. Tuesday's decision came in response to an appeal filed by Macey's.

The City Council was in the process of reworking the ordinance to make the suspension discretionary, with six-months being the maximum penalty, at the time the sales occurred.

The council decided to invoke the discretionary ordinance that is now in effect based on a legal opinion from City Attorney Junior Baker. That opinion cited a Utah Supreme Court ruling that allows a lesser punishment be imposed if the ordinance governing a violation includes a change in the penalty. While the ruling involved a criminal sentencing, Baker said he believes the concept is also applicable in civil actions such as a beer license suspension.

Council members — who went behind closed doors to consider their options before meting out the penalty to Macey's — said they wanted to make sure the message was clear to other vendors that the city takes violations of the ordinance seriously. Included in the penalty that will keep beer off the shelves from Oct. 1 to Oct. 17 (the store is closed on Sundays so they are not included in the 14-day suspension) was a $500 fine.

Macey's extensive training program was a factor in the decision. Council members said it showed the store was making a major effort to prevent sales to minors. Not only are clerks put through county training to avoid selling to minors, the store has its own extensive training program, said David Davis, an attorney representing Macey's at the meeting.

"What makes the difference (in our decision) is the training," Councilman Everett Kelepolo said. "The company has gone to extensive lengths."

In the May incident, the male sales clerk inadvertently transposed the buyers birth year of 1986 to read 1968 in the cash register which is programmed to verify the buyer is of legal age. He was cited by police, paid a $200 fine, was suspended a week without pay, had a reprimand put in his permanent personnel file and was demoted to a bagger for three months, Davis said. In the July incident, a female clerk ignored two warnings from the cash register and altered the information to allow the sale to proceed. Davis said the clerk apparently feared a confrontation with the buyer. She was also cited by police and Macey's fired her. Davis said her actions violated two levels of training provided by the store. Both clerks, who themselves were under the legal drinking age, had been through the training.