By Lexi MooreFollowing lengthy legal discussion, the Beaver Creek City Council tabled action on a liquor license for the Beaver Creek Golf Course and Beaver Lodge.The owners of the establishment, Springbrook Development, Limited Liability Corporation, had applied to renew the liquor license during Beaver Creek’s regular council meeting on March 14. The current license expires March 31.The council did not issue a license during their regular meeting because of verbiage in the town code that states a liquor license cannot be granted to entities that owe taxes or fees, whether delinquent or unpaid.According to the Rock County Auditor-Treasurer’s Office, Springbrook Development currently has unpaid taxes, penalties and interest for 2004 and 2005 totaling $38,175.82.At the regular meeting the council decided to seek legal advice from city attorney Jeff Haubrich of Klosterbuer and Haubrich Law, Luverne.Haubrich appeared before the council and members of the Springbrook Development during a special meeting Tuesday night.After reading section 4.04 of Beaver Creek’s city code aloud, Haubrich said, "It seems plain as can be that you can’t issue a license based on your code."Council members asked if there was any legal way they could still issue the license.Based on his interpretation of the city code, Haubrich recommended three options to the council:üDeny the license based on the city code.üAmend the code to remove the section in question. To do this, the city would have to follow procedure by adopting an ordinance.To adopt a new ordinance, the council would have to write the verbiage, publish it one time and the process would take about a month.üSpringbrook Development can pay the taxes before the current license expires.Councilman Burdell Willers said, "Section 4.04 is very well-written and I don’t think we should tinker with it."Mayor Al Blank agreed, "The public trust of the whole city and all its citizens needs to be considered when we discuss if a law doesn’t fit right, whether we should get rid of it."Arlyn Gehrke had trouble finding a way around the wording of the code."I think we all want to issue a liquor license, but there is no other way around it without getting the taxes paid up.Rodney Scholten, a member of the Springbrook Development, and his mother Roberta spoke on behalf of the business.They explained that the group had made an arrangement with the Rock County Treasurer’s office to pay $500 a month toward their taxes. It was their understanding that this payment would take their taxes out of delinquency.This statement contradicted information Willers gathered early Tuesday afternoon. He contacted the treasurer’s office and was told that the taxes were still delinquent.The council asked Haubrich to contact the county to clarify the situation. If the county does have an agreement with the owners that makes their tax status non-delinquent, the council plans to call another special meeting to reconsider the issue.Blank said, "The only way we would have a special meeting is if Jeff brings back something favorable from the county, otherwise the issue will just die."If the county cannot confirm such an agreement exists, the issue will remain tabled until the council meets on April 11 for their regular meeting. The golf course owners expressed the importance of keeping the liquor license.Scholten said he worried that "without the liquor license a large profit center of the business will be gone."Roberta warned that "… without the license we know we can’t survive. If the business goes under, it will be a long time before the taxes get paid – we need the license to stay in business."