Dexter Village President Shawn Keough Announces He Will Seek Re-Election

Prior to Monday's village council meeting, Dexter Village President Shawn Keough officially announced his bid to seek re-election in November.

“I’ve been asked by some of you, ‘What are my intentions for next year?’” he said. “I wanted all of you hear at the same time, rather than some people knowing and some people maybe feeling slighted if they didn’t know or find out. So, my intention was to disclose today what my plans were.”

As was previously reported, to run for the village presidency. Up until Keough’s announcement last night, Carson was running uncontested.

Keough said he tried to keep his potential candidacy to himself, yet speculation about him making another bid began swirling prematurely.

“We’ve done a lot of really good things together, this group and groups past, and I’m really proud of that,” he said, “and because of that I’m going to run for village president again here in 2012.”

Keough wished Carson good luck in the coming election. He also told those in attendance he has been considering joining the race for a while.

“I have been thinking about it quite a bit and I will be filing (Tuesday),” he
said. “So, I’m looking forward to a positive set of campaigns.”

In other action:

The council approved a  recommended by the Planning Commission was granted to Northern United Brewing Company to create a tasting room at its new 85,000-square-foot Jolly Pumpkin Artesian Ales distillery at 2319 Bishop Circle East in the industrial park.

Trustee James Smith questioned the implications of the space being called a “tasting room” and whether it might carry with it unforeseen complications for council in the future, given a public hearing to determine the definition of what the term means as far as zoning purposes go has yet to take place.

“I’m just a little concerned that here we’re approving something that has yet to be defined in our zoning ordinance,” he said. “So, it seems like kind of out of sequence.”

Community Development Manager Allison Bishop said the council can add a "tasting room" definition to its ordinance at any time.

“The Planning Commission determined that the tasting room was an appropriate land use,” she said. “When the Commission was comfortable with what was being proposed, they thought that (village council) should create a definition. 'Tasting room' isn’t currently in our ordinance, but our ordinance allows for us to determine whether or not something is a compatible land use if it’s not mentioned in the ordinance.”

Council approved the request contingent upon the definition of a tasting room as proposed in Northern United Brewing Company's petition. If this definition were to change, the land use request would have to be reapproved.

• Council approved a liquor license request on behalf of restaurant at 8099 Main St.
• Council approved the purchase of a zero-turn mower for the sum of $10,158 from Bouillon Sales.