Council approves liquor license for new restaurant
RANDOLPH – Actions by the Randolph City Council reflected a pro-business stance at its meeting last week in approving a liquor license for a new business, agreeing to help an existing business establish handicapped parking and planning to clean up commercial nuisance properties downtown.
The meeting started with a public hearing for a liquor license requested by Mitch and Tara Strathman, who plan to open a restaurant next month. No one spoke in opposition of the license which would allow for on-premise sales of alcohol and also the ability for customers to take sealed alcohol beverages with them for consumption off premises.
The Strathmans plan to open a restaurant, called 1894. The Strathmans also own the seasonal ice cream shop, The Frozen Cow, which moved to the front half of the former Randolph Senior Center building in May 2023. The back part of the building with an entry door on Main Street will be used for the new restaurant.
1894, named for the year the building was completed, will be open on weekend evenings from September through April with a menu of appetizers, hamburgers, salads and pasta with rotating specials.
“We hope it goes well. We’ll just kind of see,” Mitch Strathman told the council. “We have the space. We might as well utilize it and not only have it open three months a year like the Cow is. We might as well try to be open nine, 10 months of the year.”
The council also approved assisting Hausmann Physical Therapy in providing one handicapped accessible stall in front of their business located on Broadway Street, which may involve cutting the curb, painting the street and adding a post for signage.
“We’re glad to have them in town,” said Mayor Dwayne “BoBo” Schutt. “If they need something that simple, I think it’d be a good idea.”
The business opened in July 2023 at the former Randolph Times building at the corner of Broadway and Douglas streets.
The council, acting as the Community Development Agency, also approved a resolution to levy more than two cents into a fund to address nuisance properties. Every year, the levy generates about $10,000.
Last month, the council agreed to purchase three commercial properties downtown which are considered to be nuisance under city code.
The properties at 106, 108, and 110 W. Broadway St. include the former Nebraska Finest Meats, the former Seek N Find Consignment store, and another which served as storage and upstairs apartments.
All three buildings failed an internal city inspection in 2021 and were condemned by the city.
The council authorized $35,000 for the purchase of the properties owned by Vernon Forney, Pierce.
According to previous council discussions, the city had been trying to work with Forney to clean up the properties for nearly a year. The city’s goal with the purchase is to clean up the properties and make them available for commercial development.
City Attorney Keelan Holloway reported the city also successfully purchased some residential lots along the city’s new floodplain project at Bridge Street and toward the west.
Purchase of the lots for $40,000 is another effort by the council to clean up nuisance properties.
The city bought the easement on the lots, owned by Rose Ann Rohloff, for the floodplain project during the summer of 2020.
The deed for the properties was recorded by the county last week, Holloway said.
Councilwoman Janelle Biernbaum was absent from last week’s meeting.
The next city council meeting will be for its annual budget hearing, and public hearings on the city’s one- and six-year street plans set for 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 10.