The council approved the license for Shogun Japanese Steakhouse on the condition that the applicant undergoes a criminal background check when renewing the license in 2010.

The condition was based on a discrepancy the applicant made when initially seeking the license.

The applicant answered "no" when asked whether there was a DUI conviction in the past five years.

Melissa McCain, city clerk, said the applicant didn’t note a 2004 DUI conviction.

"The applicant checked ‘no’ thinking (the question referred to) the arrest date, not the conviction date," McCain said.

The arrest date was 2002.

The restaurant could open later this month. Stonebridge Village is off Spout Springs and Hog Mountain roads.

In other business, the council held the second of three public hearings on its proposed tax rate of 2.837 mills for 2008-09, with 1 mill equal to $1 for each $1,000 in assessed property value. Property is assessed at 40 percent.

No one showed for the hearing.

The final hearing is set for the council’s regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday, which begins at 9:30 a.m.

The tax rate is scheduled to be approved after the final hearing.

The last hearing will take place at City Hall, 5517 Main St.

City Council has given its first OK to the tax rate, which is the same as the current rate.

However, because reassessments are producing some higher property values, the city could roll back the rate to 2.835 mills and generate the same total revenue on the current year’s digest that last year’s tax rate would have produced.

The city isn’t proposing to do that, opting instead to bring in the extra money, which amounts to about $90,000.

State law requires three public hearings if the city proposes a rate higher than the rollback rate.