The DeKalb County Beer Board could decide next month whether to revoke the off premises permit of Nicole’s Market at 7024 Short Mountain Highway.
The board met briefly Thursday night but voted to defer the revocation hearing until the September 3rd meeting. The delay was requested by the county attorney Hilton Conger, who could not attend last night’s meeting. Attorney Frank Buck, who will be representing the owners of Nicole’s Market, also requested a postponement since he has just been retained and hasn’t had an opportunity to prepare for the hearing.
Last month, the beer board denied an application for an off premises permit to Debbie Sacran, the owner of D & D Market at 7166 Short Mountain Highway, because the store is only 840 feet from the Mount Pisgah Free Will Baptist Church.
DeKalb County has a rule forbidding the sale, storage and manufacture of beer and like beverages within 2,000 feet (or some lesser distance) of schools, churches, and other places of public gathering.
The problem is, the beer board, in November 2008, granted an off premises permit to Areceli Soto Godinez, the owner of Nicole’s Market, formerly known as Kilgore’s Grocery, which is only 1,447 feet from the Mount Pisgah Free Will Baptist Church.
Members of the beer board say they were unaware that Nicole’s Market did not meet the distance requirement when they approved the application, assuming that the applicant understood the rules when he filed. No one from the community appeared before the beer board at the time to object and the board apparently made no attempt to verify the distance between the store and the church, until this summer, after the controversy came to light.
So after denying D & D Market’s application, the board also voted last month to schedule a hearing to consider revoking the license of Nicole’s Market.
Sarah Cripps, attorney for David and Debbie Sacran, says that’s not acceptable. She says since the beer board has already violated the 2,000 foot distance requirement by making an exception for one store, it cannot now enforce the rule on anyone. Cripps says she plans to file an appeal to either the Chancery or Circuit Court.
County Attorney Hilton Conger says an erroneous permit issued by the beer board inadvertently can legally be revoked, without invalidating the distance requirement.
A petition bearing the names of dozens of citizens in the community opposed to the sale of beer at D & D Market was presented to the beer board last month.
Since then, Sacran says a petition has been placed at D & D Market where so far more than four hundred signatures have been obtained from people not opposed to the sale of beer at D& D Market. “We had no petition until neighbors started to come in and ask us about the petition that was being circulated asking them to oppose us selling beer. So neighbors came in the store, even some who had signed the petition in opposition saying they did so just to get those people (circulating the petition) to leave us alone, and they asked us to start a petition for those not opposed to the sale of beer at D & D Market. It’s been a couple of weeks and right now we have 463 signatures. The community is mad. This is a common sense thing. What is the big deal? Those opposing have no problem going to Walmart, Food Lion, Rite Aid, or any of your other stores who sell beer. We are a family run business and we will remain so. But the community is livid that we would be asked to turn our backs and not sell a commodity that like businesses on the same road are selling. We appreciate that. They have the common sense to understand the real issue here.”
Sacran says she is also concerned about a letter to the editor in a local newspaper signed by the owner of another convenience market in the area suggesting that there is a dispute between D & D Market and Nicole’s Market. “There has never been a dispute between Nicole’s Market and D & D Market and there is not now a dispute between us. The dispute is between D & D Market and the DeKalb County Beer Board.”
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