BLOOMINGTON -- Central Illinois Regional Airport's leaders took the first step toward issuing their own liquor licenses Tuesday, sidestepping Bloomington aldermen who twice blocked expanding alcohol sales at the terminal.

The Bloomington-Normal Airport Authority board voted unanimously to move forward with a plan to set up its own system for regulating alcohol sales, which would take the job out of the city's hands. The Airport Authority's bylaws would be tweaked, and its board chairman would become the local liquor control commissioner.

The move would be a first in Illinois for a regional airport authority, said Rodger Heaton, a Springfield-based attorney with Hinshaw & Culbertson, which studied the issue for the airport. But state law gives such entities the broad power to regulate the sale of products like alcohol inside an airport, he added.

"The courts have quite consistently said that that broader regional mission cannot be undermined by the individual parochial interests of one particular municipality," Heaton told the board Tuesday.

In this case, the Bloomington City Council has twice voted down an airport-backed plan to sell alcohol at Tailwind, a new restaurant located past security at CIRA. The Hangar eatery serves alcohol before security.