Top 10 of 2013: #10 McRudy’s, Rumrunners Close Their Doors

ST. CLOUD - Today (Thursday) WJON News is kicking-off our annual countdown of the Top 10 local news stories of the year.

Here's a look back at our #10 story for 2013.

Two downtown St. Cloud bars with a lot of name recognition closed their doors this year.  McRudy's and Rumrunners abruptly locked their doors in early June.

Both bars were owned by Brad Ireland and Eric Sandrock.

The closings came as a surprise because it came in advance of a public hearing with the city council to renew their liquor licenses.  The hearing went on as scheduled later in June, and the city council denied their liquor license renewal application because of what staff called a long list of violations.

Just days after the city council meeting, plans for the owners to sell McRudy's began to emerge.  The new owners were first denied a liquor license, but later had it approved.  The new bar is now called The Pickled Loon.  It opened just this past weekend.  However, the Rumrunners building remains vacant.

Coming-up tomorrow (Friday) we'll have the #9 local news story in our Top 10 countdown.