Merchant appeals loss of her license

SPRINGVILLE — The owner of a store that allegedly sold beer to a minor is appealing the automatic denial of her request to renew her city alcohol license.

Venita Henderson, manager of V's Quik Stop, 480 S. Main, is scheduled to appear before the City Council on Tuesday. The meeting at City Hall, 50 S. Main, begins at 7 p.m.

On June 15 police officers sent a juvenile into the store to try and purchase beer as part of a regularly scheduled quarterly sting. When Henderson sold it to the juvenile, police cited her, Police Chief Mike Finlaysen said. Police cited four establishments for alcohol violations that day, he said.

When Henderson's license came up for renewal in December, it was denied, City Councilman Rodney Burt said. The denial lasts for two years.

Henderson also lost her beer handler's permit for a year, according to the Utah County Health Department.

Because she was also the manager, the city looked at her case differently than if she had been just an employee, City Attorney Troy Fitzgerald said. So when Henderson's city alcohol license came up for renewal, she failed the background check.

"The business license clerk had no choice but to deny (the license renewal)," he said.

The store had to pull beer off its shelves as of Jan. 1.

Meanwhile, Henderson and her daughter and co-manager, Charity Pia, will ask the city to change its ordinance, asserting it's unfair. Larger stores that sell beer don't have managers working the cash registers, Pia said. A petition the women have set up for customers to sign supporting their position had collected 100 signatures as of Friday, another employee said.

"If an employee had sold the beer, we would have got three shots at it (before losing our license)," Pia said.

"I'm not sure the council is interested or what they'll do," City Manager Layne Long said of the appeal request on Tuesday's agenda.

In 1999 and 2000 the city revamped its beer license ordinance, including a limit on the number of beer licenses that could be issued in Springville, opening the door for Sunday beer sales and establishing a beer handlers license for cashiers.

As part of the new requirements, beer handlers had to take a class taught by the police department. The county now teaches that class because it has since instituted its own beer handlers requirements, to which cities comply, Fitzgerald said.

Since the implementation of the beer handlers license, sales to minors have decreased, he said. Under the old law, if an employee was caught selling beer to a minor the business could lose its license. That rule was made less strict with the new ordinance, Fitzgerald said.

Long said one solution that might allow V's Quik Stop to regain its license and continue selling beer would be a new manager.

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E-mail: rodger@desnews.com