The DeKalb County Beer Board Thursday night voted to deny 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, at 7024 Short Mountain Highway, 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 last month, after the controversy came to light.
So after denying D & D Market’s application Thursday night, the board also voted 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. “When you have discriminatory enforcement of the 2,000 foot rule, that invalidates the total distance requirement. In other words when you’ve got the ordinance or the 2,000 foot rule that is not uniformly applied to every applicant, it invalidates the rule. There’s case after case that say that.”
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. ” It’s clear, it’s the law that if the county has discriminatorily said it’s going to be 2,000 feet for this one, but not 2,000 feet for another one and there’s more than one instance of that, then there might be a situation where the courts would say, well you have discriminatorily enforced your rule. But, in this case, we’ve only got one that we’re aware of, and the case that I cited is in the attorney general’s opinion and it clearly says that just one inadvertent permit issued like that wouldn’t invalidate it.”
Debbie Sacran told WJLE that since Nicole’s Market has been granted a permit to sell beer, it has adversely affected her business, which is almost next door, and she blames the beer board for contributing to the problem by not doing their homework. “We’ve been there for twenty years and we have to protect our investment. We have customers come in all the time, they put things on the counter and when they find out we don’t have beer, they say, we’re going to put all this back and go up there (to Nicole’s Market) and just write one check. It has made a huge impact on our business and when you get into my pocket book, I’m not going away. I don’t think anybody would. Once they (beer board) grant a license, they need to be sure what they’re doing before they grant it. I have no qualm with Nicole’s Market. These are good people. They’re just like us, they’re standing there fourteen hours a day, dead on their feet trying to make a living. I’m not asking anybody to come in and buy it (beer). But I am a commodity store. Beer is a legal commodity. I should be able to sell it. I’m sorry they (beer board) didn’t do their homework, but no, I’m not going away because I need to be able to compete now.”
Phillip Luna, Pastor of the Mount Pisgah Free Will Baptist Church, speaking on behalf of his congregation addressed the board speaking in opposition to a beer permit for D&D Market. The board was also made aware of a petition bearing the names of 54 people from the community who are also opposed.
Helen Hale, a resident of the community, told WJLE after the meeting that she is very pleased with the board’s decision to deny D & D Market’s application and to seek a revocation of Nicole Market’s permit. “I’m very pleased with what the board did. We just got rid of all the drugs out there and we don’t want this in our door. Nobody in the community knew that Nicole’s had asked for a license. We didn’t realize the store was Nicole’s because all the signs on it still say Kilgores.”
Members of the DeKalb County Beer Board are Harrell Tolbert, Frank Thomas, Dick Knowles, Jim Stagi, Mack Harney, Robert Rowe, and Edward Frazier.
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