City considers reports on liquor store, city hall remodel

At the October 9 meeting of the Grand Marais City Council, there were two presentations related to Grand Marais City Hall and the Municipal Liquor Store. 
 

The McComb Group was first up with a presentation filled with statistics regarding the market for liquor stores in the region.  The bottom line was the Grand Marais Liquor Store produces about $2 million in revenue each year for the city and is one of the top producing liquor stores on the North Shore, second only to the Two Harbors Liquor Store. 
 

The city council also heard from the architectural firm, LHB, on a possible renovation of the entire city hall and liquor store building, based on the premise that the current building is demolished.  LHB presented some preliminary concepts for what could happen to the site. They sketched ideas for a one-story or a two-story building. 
 

Councilors had some good discussion of the pros and cons of each draft design and agreed to come back to a future city council meeting with their thoughts and suggestions. Continued discussion is on the next city council agenda, at 6:40 p.m. on Wednesday, October 30.
 

WTIP’s Rhonda Silence spoke with Grand Marais Mayor Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux about the information received and about the city council’s “homework” before that next meeting.