Village also hears petition concerning rental utilities

July 8, 2015

by Derek Pope
Bethany Reporter

At the end of May, Bethany’s first bar in decades decided to close—at least temporarily. The Hired Hand Winery and Saloon, located in Bethany’s downtown district, formally announced the closure on their Facebook page on May 31, pledging to return to business in August. The reason they cited for the closure was an extended family summer vacation, but the announcement came unexpectedly following the approval of a sizable loan from the village’s township investment funds (TIF) intended to aid in the business’s summer operations.
Prior to the village board’s approval of the loan in April, the owners of the Hired Hand and its sister business Echoes Studio, Shane and Erin Weybright, approached the village’s TIF committee with an appeal for funds that they deemed necessary for keeping the two establishments operational throughout the summer and ultimately in the months and years to come. They requested the necessary money to install a new heating, and more importantly, air conditioning system in the outdated downtown buildings that housed the businesses. The Hired Hand’s ownership said that during their first year of operation, the complete lack of an air conditioning system so badly hurt their summer business that it may ultimately be impossible to financially endure another summer without one.
Bethany’s TIF committee and village board ultimately agreed, approving a recommendation to award the Weybrights a $48,000 five-year forgivable loan, in part to improve the downtown buildings themselves, which must be repaid in part should the business permanently close or be sold within that time frame.
The decision was not without objections, though.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.