Smithville Food Store Granted Beer Permit

Smithville Food Store will soon begin selling beer.
The Smithville Beer Board Thursday night granted Kevin Means’ application to sell beer at Smithville Food Store.
Under the city regulations, a business applying for a beer permit cannot be closer than 400 feet (front door to front door) to a church or school. Smithville Food Store is near Smithville Elementary School and the First Assembly of God.
City Secretary-Treasurer Hunter Hendrixson, who presided over Thursday night’s meeting due to a vacancy in the beer board chairmanship, said that Means meets all the requirements. “Mr. Kevin Robinson (City Public Works Director) measured from the elementary school and it was 1100 feet from front door to front door. They didn’t do the church (measure the distance). Anybody can eyeball it and tell it’s more than 400 feet.”
Hendrixson says the church is making plans to move to a new location on the Cookeville Highway and the church property is being rezoned to commercial.” The rezoning application has already passed the planning commission. They’re (the church) looking to sell and build out on Highway 56 north. As soon as they make a sale, they will no longer be there. The zoning will come before the board (city council) at the next meeting. It will be up to them to pass it but it did pass the planning commission to be rezoned.”
Hendrixson says Smithville Food Store also easily met the inventory requirements. ” The inventory must be greater than $20,000 or $25,000. It’s well passed that. It’s up in the hundreds of thousands of dollars as far as inventory goes. From what I can tell it meets the requirements.
Prior to the vote, Hendrixson called for a public hearing on the application, but no one spoke.
Mean’s application was approved on a 4 to nothing vote.
Beer board members Steve Hays, Lloyd Black, Annette Greek, and Farron Hendrix all voted in favor. Alderman Willie Thomas was absent.
In other business, Annette Greek was named chairman of the city beer board.