Liquor discussion on tap with Selectmen
Published on December 11th, 2002
STONEHAM, MA - They do it every 50 years, and the Stoneham Board of Selectmen have spent several different sessions touching upon it. It is the alcohol licensing bylaws, and the Board has spent countless hours on such alcohol minutiae as how many drinks should Stoneham patrons be allowed before food arrives and the proper amount of spacing between dining chairs in a restaurant.
The Board of Selectmen has set January 7 as the date for a public hearing, and will invite all restaurant, liquor store and lounge owners in for a discussion on the bylaws.
At the heart of the discussion has been whether or not there should be a limit to alcohol consumed prior to the service of food.
According to Town counsel William Solomon, many of the establishments serving alcohol in Stoneham have been working under the assumption that a patron may only order a maximum of two drinks prior to ordering food.
Solomon advised that no such provision is contained within the bylaws, and that the Selectmen may wish to add that amendment to the current bylaw.
“We always assumed there was something written in the bylaw, but there was actually nothing there,” said Solomon.
Selectman Cosmo Ciccarello argued that Stoneham liquor establishments should limit serving one alcoholic beverage prior to the actual serving of ordered food. Ciccarello was afraid that patrons could decide to drop into Stoneham, and use the bylaw like stool-sitters at an old west saloon.
“What’s to stop people from coming to Stoneham, ordering two drinks and the deciding they don’t want to order food,” said Ciccarello of the hypothetical Stoneham pub crawl. “Then they go to another restaurant and order two more drinks, and then another.”
“I remember thirty years ago there was a drunken driving fatality as a result of being served at a Stoneham location,” said Ciccarello. “I don’t want to see that happen again.”
Selectmen Charlie Smith argued with Ciccarello that there should be more trust in the trained restaurant staffs within the town lines.
“Cosmo, thirty years was a long time ago,” said Smith. “I think we have some well trained people in Stoneham who have gone through the training required to serve alcohol.”
“If somebody just wants to go out and get drunk, then they can just go to the package store and get a six-pack,” added Smith.
Ciccarello voiced his stern opposition to Stoneham turning into a bar town, and complained that the line between bars and restaurants were being continually blurred.
Solomon, assuming that the Board wanted to continue the tradition of serving alcohol with food, advised the Selectmen to come up with some policy to direct restaurants in serving alcohol. Solomon also advised the Selectmen to conduct the open public hearing to gain the restaurant owners feedback concerning potential changes.
The Selectmen agreed to hold the public hearing, and a majority of the board seemed to be leaning toward a two drink maximum prior to ordering food.
“We haven’t heard any real complaints from the police or from the restaurant owners,” said Selectman Bob Sweeney. “This seems like another example of the Selectman getting involved in the business of people around town when we shouldn’t.”
“This seems like an anti-restaurant, anti-lounge bylaw, where we’re getting in their business,” added Sweeney. “If it ain’t broke...”
The Selectmen also discussed the spacing of chairs after the changes were brought up by Solomon. According to Solomon, the current bylaw requires only 12 inches between the end of a table and the back of the dining chair.
“Now I don’t know if it’s because of my dieting failures or the fact that I like to have my seat away from the table, but 24 inches seems like a much more reasonable figure to me,” said Solomon.
The Selectmen discusses possibly changing the requirement, but Selectman Anthony Kennedy was concerned about sudden changes to decade old restaurant floor plans.
“What about someone who has been here for twenty or thirty years, and can’t accommodate this kind of change,” said Kennedy. “Will the older restaurants be grand-fathered in?”
Solomon advised that the Board could decide to keep the regulations the same, could grand-father certain businesses that can prove a hardship, or could require restaurants to reconfigure their floor plans. Town counsel stated that he simply was “trying to implement something that wasn’t covered by the building department regulations to accommodate people of all different shapes and sizes.”
Solomon also recommended that the Board of Selectmen alter the alcohol training provision within the town bylaws. The current bylaw awards restaurants with a 10 percent discount on their liquor license if 75 percent of their staff completes an alcohol training course.
Solomon advised the Selectmen to require all restaurants servers and bartenders to complete alcohol training, and to do away with the discount.
“We would be taking away the discount, but we would also vow not to raise the liquor licensing costs,” said Solomon.
The Selectmen then scheduled the alcohol bylaw public hearing for January 7, and asked that each liquor licensee be invited to the meeting.
“They may have some suggestions that could help steer the final path of these bylaw changes,” said Solomon.
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