The current Duluth City Council will hold a final meeting at 5 p.m. today in City Hall to try to overturn Mayor Herb Bergson's final veto, concerning liquor in Lakeside-Lester Park.
Unless at least one councilor switches sides, the vote will end 6-3, enough to override Bergson's veto.
During the first vote on Dec. 17, Councilors Laurie Johnson, Russ Stewart, Garry Krause, Tim Little, Roger Reinert and Russ Stover voted for a resolution that asks the state Legislature to overturn the law that has kept Lakeside and Lester Park dry for more than 100 years. Greg Gilbert, Don Ness and Jim Stauber opposed it.
The law has been in place since 1892, when Duluth annexed the neighborhood and, as part of the agreement, banned liquor sales.
Bergson said during a news conference Friday that he was upholding a promise the city made to that neighborhood when it annexed the land.
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A challenge came to the law in the 1970s, but legislators voted it down. The topic came up again four years ago, but city councilors didn't take a vote.
The majority of e-mails to councilors support keeping the ban.
The co-sponsors of the resolution to allow liquor sales say legislation that was passed so long ago shouldn't be viewed as a perpetual commitment.
Reversing the 100-year-old law would place the area under the same rules as the rest of the city, supporters of the change say.
