St. Charles committee recommends three stores' liquor licenses

St. Charles aldermen voted to support liquor licenses for three retail stores during the government operations committee meeting Tuesday night.

Aldi, 2670 W. Main St.; Blue Goose Supermarket, 300 S. 2nd St.; and Wal-Mart, 150 Smith Road, now will wait for a final vote at the Feb. 4 city council meeting.

The vote was 9-1, with the dissenting vote coming from 4th Ward Alderman Jim Martin, who routinely votes against liquor measures.

"I'm not against drinking alcohol," Martin said. "What I am opposed to is these establishments selling alcohol to people who then get behind the wheel and drive drunk."

Martin said he feels retail sales contribute to the danger of drunken driving as much as pubs or restaurants do.

Martin's "no" vote didn't surprise David Lencioni, president of the Blue Goose Supermarket.

"He has a long track record of voting 'no' against the alcohol licenses," Lencioni said. "But I've known him for a long time, and we're pretty good friends. I went up to him before the meeting and told him I expected him to vote 'no.' "

Lencioni explained the Blue Goose plans to sell a limited selection of wines at its new store, set to open early in March.

"We will have about 60 different labels of wine. Hopefully we will save our customers an extra stop if they want to pick up a nice bottle of wine to go with dinner. This is something new for us. It's kind of an experiment," Lencioni said.