It looked possible when the Carmi City Council’s agenda for Tuesday was released that a lengthy discussion surrounding the city’s liquor ordinances would be the main topic and take a bulk of the time. While it garnered about 10% of the talking time of Tuesday’s gathering, it was largely overshadowed by discussion surrounding the potential sale of the municipality’s wastewater treatment plant. City leaders, representatives of Illinois American Water, an AFSCME Council 31 rep, and more than two dozen onlookers, many of them city employees, debated the issue for about an hour and ten minutes.
On the liquor ordinance front, Nick Patel was scheduled to address the council. He owns Pundrakes, East Side Package, Rock Bottom, and the property that was Fifth Street Market. In June of 2025, Kenny Hargrave approached council as the then owner of the market looking to acquire a liquor license so that he could add gaming.
Read more at Hargrave to Get Liquor License; Leaders Receive Auditor Opinion; Mayor Breaks Tie Tuesday – WRUL-FM
While he was successful in gaining that license from the city, he was shopping the store and Patel purchased it. In August of last year, Patel told us he purchased the store to protect market share saying at the time that when Wal-Mart got their liquor license, he noticed a 15-20% drop in sales. Patel also said he had no plans to operate the market but instead intended to expand Pundrake’s offerings including limited grocery items.
Read more at New Owner of Fifth Street Market Property Says He’ll Cease Operations There; Expansion Planned at Pundrakes – WRUL-FM
Then at the last May 5th of 2026 meeting, council was approached by Ryan Botsch looking to acquire a liquor license as part of his ambition to open a convenience/dollar store with gaming. With Patel a no show, alderman Jack Bradshaw said he wanted to break the ordinance up and take the items individually. Fellow council member Jeremy Courson said he was tired of tabling it and motioned to pass it as drafted. That motion was seconded by Tracy Nelson and all members voting yes except Jack Bradshaw and his daughter in law, Lacey Bradshaw. Botsch will now have to come back to the next June meeting to formally request that newly established license. A liquor license is required to host gaming terminals.
Of note, gaming across the city’s eleven locations is significantly down when measuring the first four months of 2026 versus the same time period of 2025. Video gaming terminal income January – April of 2026 was $714,249.19. The same period for 2025 saw those machines pull $913,373.47. That’s just under $200,000 less. The City of Carmi’s share of that income dropped more than $15,000.
The consideration on selling the city’s sanitary sewer system only drew attention of the public in the day or two prior to the meeting itself despite alderman Doug Hays saying the matter had been brought up during closed session of a council meeting “a few months ago”. Many in the gallery bristled at the prospect of selling the plant and questioned what would happen to the estimated eight employees. Chris Guy and Brock Teichmiller fielded questions for more than an hour and withstood impassioned pessimism from local cynics. Mayor Bill Stendeback, City Supervisor Brad Attebury, and alderwoman Bradshaw attempted to quell concern saying this was only a request for proposal and not a formal move to sell the property noting that receiving a quote would only inform the city on what the utility is worth to Illinois American Water and any other company that wanted to bid. In addition to a bid, Illinois American Water is expected to also spell out a cash value of improvements they would make, which would presumably result in sewer rate increases, something the city admits probably need to happen anyway as the last rate increase was in 2011.
Ultimately, councilmen Mark Blake and Jeremy Courson would make an initial motion and second to say no to an invitation to bid. That motion failed with only Blake and Courson voting in favor. Hays and Lacey Bradshaw then made a motion to welcome an invitation to bid and it passed with only Blake and Courson opposing. The invitation to bid will be published in the McLeansboro newspaper and should be received by June 25th. Any bids will then be opened during the July 7th council meeting and considered at the July 21st meeting.
Council recessed into closed session at 7:02pm to discuss seasonal personnel.