DANVILLE — The owners of a bar on East Main Street across from the Veterans Affairs Illiana Health Care System's medical campus still have not reopened their father's long-time business, because a city ordinance prohibits liquor establishments within 100 feet of hospital property.

But owners Debra Manning and her brother, Richard Stitt Jr., hope the city council agrees to change language in the ordinance, allowing them to secure a city liquor license and open the newly renovated Satellite bar at 2001 E. Main St., Danville.

Mayor Scott Eisenhauer said city administration will be recommending at the Feb. 7 city council meeting that the liquor ordinance be changed from 100 feet between property lines to 100 feet between structures.

The current ordinance prohibits any liquor establishment within 100 feet of the property line of various entities, including schools, day-care facilities and hospitals.

Although the Satellite is directly across Main Street from the VA campus at 1900 E. Main St., it's hundreds of yards from the actual hospital, which sits in the midst of a sprawling campus that includes green space and several large buildings.

Eisenhauer, who serves as the city's liquor commissioner, said the language in the ordinance was realized when the Satellite owners applied for a liquor license after receiving their special-use permit in the city's zoning process in November.

At that point, Eisenhauer said, city officials consulted state statutes, which have similar language. But state liquor control commission officials advised the city, Eisenhauer said, that many municipalities set limits structure-to-structure rather than according to property lines.

Eisenhauer said city officials don't want to make that change in regard to schools or day cares, but feel comfortable changing the language in regard to hospitals. The ordinance also included veteran homes, which Eisenhauer said is too vague and could mean any residential home occupied by any veteran in the city.

So city administrators will recommend that the council remove "veteran home" from the ordinance altogether, and specify that 100 feet between structures rather than property lines only between hospitals and liquor establishments. The language will remain 100 feet between property lines between liquor establishments and all the other entities, including schools and day cares.

It's been a long road for Manning and Stitt, who decided early last year to reopen the Satellite after the death of their father, who had run the business for many years until he became ill. They had poured more than $30,000 into renovating the building when they learned that they had to seek a special-use permit from the city, because the business been closed for more than a year.

Some concerns about the business were raised by Aldermen Bill Black and a resident, who spoke to the city's planning and zoning commission about his concerns. But the commission recommended by a 6-1 vote that the city council grant the business the zoning change and special-use permit, and the city council agreed in mid-November approving the permit by a 13-0 vote with Black absent.

"We are done and ready to go," Manning said last week. She said she appreciates the cooperation from city administration to get the ordinance changed and allow them to finally open for business.

Long term, they want to put a kitchen in the bar and serve lunch, which they believe would be good for employees at nearby Danville Area Community College, the VA and other employers in the area.

"Right now we need to open and make some more money to get the kitchen in," she said.