Changes to the City of Monmouth’s video gaming ordinance are still in the works.
Aldermen last night heard that city staff had reviewed ordinances from various communities throughout the state and the language being used to regulate the gaming terminals.
City Administrator Lew Steinbrecher tells WGIL that the proposed ordinance would see the annual fee increase but Monmouth’s establishments would only be responsible for a small portion of it.
“Although the amounts varied, we thought that something in the range of $50 [per terminal for each local establishment] annually and a $250 per terminal fee annually that would be paid by the video gaming vendor.”
Steinbrecher indicated that those fee amounts could change when the ordinance change is considered.
Steinbrecher also says that the State of Illinois expanded the number of terminals an establishment has but aldermen don’t seem too keen on allowing businesses to reach that max.
“Based on the comments we have received [from the city council], we have proposed a policy that we thought would probably be receptive to the majority of the aldermen. That was to establish a limit of five machines. The state law was recently amended to increase it from five to six. We sensed there was a general opinion among the various aldermen that they’d like to limit it to five.”
No action was taken by the city council and the item is expected to return at the December 16th meeting.
Outside of the city council meeting, Steinbrecher also says that the city has received the site plan and construction drawings from Arby’s. He said that the city is in the process of reviewing and issuing the company its building permits.
The hope is for construction to start in the next couple of weeks.
