Increased maximum number of video gaming terminals among proposed changes to city’s municipal code

QUINCY — The Quincy City Council looked for the first time during Monday night’s meeting at an ordinance that Quincy Mayor Mike Troup says brings the city’s municipal code for video gaming licenses more in line with the Illinois Liquor Control Statute.

“We’re not looking at creating additional revenues, but just maintaining and cleaning (the municipal code) up,” he said. 

One of the changes clarifies the definition of a restaurant and a bar. A bar is an establishment that generates more than 50 percent of its gross revenue from the sale of alcohol. A restaurant generates more than 50 percent of its gross revenue from the sale of food. A bar must apply for an A-1 gaming license, and a restaurant must apply for an A-2 gaming license. Each A license costs $700 annually.

If 50 percent or more of an establishment’s revenues are from gaming, an I license is needed. I-1 license holders must pay $10,000 annually, and they now can have six video gaming terminals, the state maximum, instead of five. The I-2 license holders must pay $2,500 annually, and their limit of video gaming terminals increases from three to four.

The I-1 license is only available for establishments who had a Quincy liquor license before July 1, 2021.

Troup: Liquor licensees he’s talked with say ‘it looks like a fair deal’

Troup said another change addresses nightclubs. He said Quincy now has four nightclubs, with a fifth in development. The ordinance caps the number of nightclubs in Quincy to six, and the license for a nightclub also is $2,500. 

Troup said the fee for an individual video gaming terminal remains unchanged at $100.

Troup sent a copy of the ordinance to all the current owners of liquor licenses last week. He said the response from most of them was “fine.”

“I’ve heard from three or four current licensees, and they said it looks like a fair deal,” Troup said. “You’re not going to please 100 percent of the people. I’m slowly figuring that out. People are still going to study it. We’ve got two more weeks.”

Aldermen are expected to vote on the changes at the City Council’s Nov. 29 meeting.

Aldermen add properties to city’s fix or flatten program

Aldermen also approved the addition of 1700 Koch’s Lane, 525 S. Sixth, 914 Cherry, 410 College, 414 Elm, 630 N. Fifth and 606 N. Sixth to the city’s fix or flatten program. However, some properties could be given to the Two Rivers Land Bank, which aldermen approved April 26. The land bank is designed to help find buyers for blighted properties for which owners are no longer paying taxes.

Chuck Bevelheimer, director of planning and development, said adding a property to the land bank typically takes four months. 

“We’re working with a private attorney now. Things are moving fairly quickly to get these through the system,” Bevelheimer told aldermen. “Any property that has good bones, we can keep. We’ll work with the attorneys to see if we can maintain that (building) instead of demolishing.”

Aldermen heard the first presentation of an amended ordinance to the traffic code dealing with motorized bicycles. Deputy Chief Adam Yates with the Quincy Police Department said they have “become pretty prominent around town.” He said the Illinois Vehicle Code specifically outlines gas-powered bicycles as not being motor vehicles, and the muffler ordinance is only written for motor vehicles.

“As they have become more prevalent, the mufflers have become louder and become more annoying. We’ve actually got a lot of complaints from residents about that,” Yates said. “We’ve added language that makes those particular bicycles susceptible to that muffler ordinance. This will give our officers the ability to write notice of violations to the bicycle owners for a loud muffler without having to have any other type of traffic violation to stop them.”

In other action, aldermen:

• Recommended referrals from the traffic commission to lower the speed limit on Crestview Drive to 25 mph, remove parking on the north side of York Street between Sixth and Seventh, and implement a school speed zone for St. Francis School, 1700 College. 
• Approved mayoral appointments of Bruce Guthrie as the Quincy Area Chamber of Commerce representative and Emily Lombardi as the District appointee to the Quincy Next Development Commission.
• Observed a moment of silence for Brian Vahlkamp, a U.S. Postal Service driver who was killed Saturday in an auto accident. Vahlkamp is the brother of Bernie Vahlkamp, chief of the Quincy Fire Department, and a son of former alderman Raymond “Skip” Vahlkamp.
• Approved an agreement with Crawford, Murphy and Tilly, Inc., to provide engineering and planning services for the second phase of construction of an engineering project at Quincy Regional Airport for a cost not to exceed $565,450. Mike Rein, R-5, last week questioned a sentence in the proposed contract about the firm’s claim about not being a qualified contractor. The resolution had been tabled.
• Authorized pension funding for the fiscal year beginning May 1, 2022, for the fire pension at $4,237,165 and the police pension at $3,798,349.
• Approved the low quote of $14,925 from Cascade Engineering, Inc., of Grand Rapids, Mich., to buy 300 96-gallow roll-out trash carts.
• Approved the purchase of a 2022 F-450 4X4 dump truck with a V-box spreader from Knapheide Truck Equipment for $82.435.
• Adopted five changes to the city’s traffic code to prevent stopping or standing on the south side of Locust from Fourth to Fifth and on Maine from Emery Drive east to 30th Street; remove parking on the east side of South Sixth between Kentucky and State, and on both sides of North Seventh between Broadway and Spring; and established a right turn only for all southbound traffic on North Seventh between Broadway and Spring.