BUCKHANNON – The Colonial Arts Center Board has begun the process of hiring a third-party vendor to serve alcohol at the Colonial Arts Center and Event Center at Brushy Fork.

During the CAC Board’s Sept. 5 meeting, members discussed their ongoing conversations with Jimbo’s Place about serving as the potential vendor for alcohol at both locations.

“There are two avenues the City of Buckhannon could take – a permanent license or an event license,” Amberle Jenkins, director of finance and administration for the City of Buckhannon, explained. “To be able to serve beer and wine, it’s a $500 license. They [remain in effect] for 10 consecutive days for an event, so we were looking at that for the CAC because they wanted us to use a third party there, and they’re probably going to do that for the event center as well.”

That plan differs from the one articulated at a recent city council meeting by Buckhannon City Recorder Randy Sanders at council’s second meeting in August. At that time, Sanders suggested a third-party vendor could be utilized at CAC but said the city should obtain its own liquor license for events at the Brushy Fork Event Center.

Jenkins said the owner of Jimbo’s Place would purchase the license, provide the alcohol and serve it, but the city would have to reimburse them for the purchase of the license.

Buckhannon City Recorder Randy Sanders said a permanent license, held by the City of Buckhannon, would cost about $2,000 and only apply to one location, meaning either the Brushy Fork Event Center or the CAC. Sanders said he believes the $500 fee for the third-party license for the two upcoming October events should be split by the CAC and the BCT/Chamber.

“I think half of that fee should be paid by this board, but the other half should be paid by the BCT and the Chamber,” Sanders said. “The license will cover the CAC opening ceremony and the Chamber/BCT fundraiser, so it makes sense.”

Board member Erika Kolenich said the Buckhannon Community Theater has a meeting Sept. 7, and she would discuss splitting the cost, but the request sounded reasonable.

The initial conversation about serving alcohol at the Colonial Arts Center, a city-owned property, began during the CAC Board’s Aug. 2 meeting, when board president John Waltz expressed the desire to serve beer and wine at the arts center’s upcoming grand opening event slated for Saturday, Oct. 21. He said having beer and wine available was also crucial to the success of a jointly sponsored Buckhannon-Upshur Chamber of Commerce and Buckhannon Community Theatre murder mystery fundraiser dinner, “Death by Dessert,” scheduled for Oct. 13-14.

“If we believe alcohol can’t be served at that event, I’m not quite certain we can arrange a price point that makes the amount of money we would need on the event,” Waltz said. “I think the question would be raised if it was worth the time and the effort to put the thing on and have everybody volunteer to do this if we can’t reach the price point we want.”

City council approved utilizing a third party to serve beer and wine at the CAC on a trial basis during their Aug. 17 meeting.