Meeting: Salem Licensing Board was held Monday, December 17, 2012 at 4:00 pm in the third floor conference room, 120 Washington Street. Present were Chairman Bob St. Pierre and members John Casey and Rick Lee, Det. Sgt. Page and Clerk of the Board, Melissa Pagliaro.
Approved: Request to Amend the hours of operation for a Common Victuallers license. Applicant: ‘Jo Freedom, 196 Essex Street. Present: Lawrence Keegan, part owner and owner of unit.
Mr. Keegan said that they have been doing a lot of business with the College students and it would help to have the extended hours. They would like to open from 6:00am to 11:00pm.
Mr. Casey motioned to approve.
Mr. Lee seconded.
Mr. St. Pierre said all are in favor. Motion carried.
Approved: Application to Transfer the Annual Wine & Malt Liquor License, Pledge the License and apply for a Seasonal All Alcohol Liquor License. License is currently in the name of Café Polonia, 118 Washington Street. Applicant: Buckeye Hospitality d/b/a The Naumkeag Ordinary.
Present were Matt Brady, owner, Daniel Bitler, chef and Attorney Goodman.
Mr. Goodman said that the menu fare will be American Comfort food. He said that both Matt and Daniel have a lot of experience in the food industry. He said that Mr. Brady is TIPS certified and has been in restaurant management for over 16 years. He said that Mr. Bitler will act as the executive Chef.
Mr. Casey said it looks as though there is a limited menu.
Mr. Bitler said it will change seasonally.
Mr. Casey asked about the hours.
Mr. Brady said he would like to keep them the same from 11am-1am, 7 days a week.
Mr. Casey reviewed the closing time procedure.
Mr. Bitler said he is not yet TIPS certified.
Mr. Casey said that all servers of any kind need to be TIPS certified and the Board will need proof of that for the file. He also asked when they wanted to begin.
Mr. Brady said as soon as the state approves the transfer.
Mr. Casey asked for a price isolated for the alcohol.
Mr. Barcicowski said that was not done in the P&S but they can do that and give it to the Board.
Mr. St. Pierre said that would be helpful of they could allocate an amount for the Liquor License.
Mr. Casey motioned to approve the Transfer of the Annual Wine & Malt License, the pledge of the license to the Barcikowski’s for 18 months and the Seasonal All Alcohol application.
Mr. Casey motioned to approve.
Mr. Lee seconded.
Mr. St. Pierre said all are in favor. Motion carried.
Also submitted was an application for Weekday Entertainment to include two televisions and a stereo that is not to be heard outside.
Mr. Casey motioned to approve.
Mr. Lee seconded.
Mr. St. Pierre said all are in favor. Motion carried.
Approved: Public hearing re-opened - continued from December 3rd, 2012. Application for a Class I Auto Dealers License. Applicant: Mazda, Highland Ave.
Present: Attorney Arthur Goldberg for abutter, Darren Bonano head of operations for Mazda, Attorney Jack keilty for Stutz Volvo and Attorney Jospeh Correnti for the applicants.
Mr. Goldberg stated that he and Mr. Correnti have been friends for many years and that Mr. Correnti felt as though he had insulted him at the last meeting and he just wanted to say he did not mean to do any such thing and that he apologizes for that if he did.
Mr. St. Pierre said that as a member for the LB that Mr. Correnti has been doing business with the Board in the two or three years that he has been a member and that he is a very reputable attorney.
Mr. Casey asked everyone to identify themselves.
Mr. St. Pierre said when this was before the LB two weeks ago there were going to be some discussions to see if some sort of agreement could be reached between abutters and the applicant. He asked how that is going.
Mr. Correnti said at last meeting the abutters brought up some ongoing issues and anticipated concerns about the new dealer coming into this property that Mr. Plaisted ran as a dealership. Mr. Correnti showed the LB a plan of the area. Mr. Correnti reported that Greenledge Street runs downs most of the property and on the other side where the service building is; some of the concerns were possible infringements, some of which are subject to land court claims; Attorney Keilty was at last meeting representing the land owner from which Mazda is leasing the property; and that the new dealership owner was focused on trying to address the dealership impact on the land and abutters. They were able to look at the issues of concern identified
by the abutters and take care of them as follows:
1. Parking spaces on Greenledge St. will be blacked out so they will no longer be there. The landowner has undertaken that action
2. The stairway that exits from the showroom onto Greenledge St. have been removed and the egress will be completely blocked.
3. Placement of the jersey barriers in the rear of the showroom that delineate the parking areas and storage lots for the vehicles for the cars on the lot. There was a question of whether or not the barriers were on our property or encroaching on Green ledge Street, which included questions about some gates. The owners of the property did have it resurveyed and the barriers are on the owner’s property, they are not encroaching, but the gate posts were encroaching over the property line and they are in the process of removing them and pulling them back so the gates will be on the property and not encroaching onto Greenledge Street.
4. Barbed wire on top of the fence was an issue for abutters and land owner has agreed to remove it.
5. One of the major issues discussed at the last meeting was the car carriers and the delivery of vehicles to the site and where would the carried be located when they came to the site, where would they stop, where would they unload and apparently there is a history of different locations where this has happened and locking at the site. Mr. Correnti reported that the applicant has agreed to do a couple of things, some are operation, but these operational things they want to review, however they don’t necessarily want these items as strict conditions on the license. They have not had the opportunity to even open yet so they think they know how this will work, but are not sure. With that in mind, he said the car carrier is the
first item, he said they understand that there is the Young World nursery school right across the street on Greenledge Street and one of the concerns was that car carrier coming in and out, where are they located, are they blocking traffic, the kids. Mr. Bonano has some information on car carriers. He said it is not daily. He said that the safest way for the car carriers is to come is all the way to the end of Greenledge, not unloading on Highland Ave., on the empty lot or having tires up on Highland Ave or blocking bus stops. He said that they are not proposing to do any unloading on Highland Ave. They want to pull the car carrier all the way to the end of Greenledge and then have the car carrier make a turn and come back out Greenledge. He said this is well past the school. He said it would drive past the showroom, past the school at about 5 miles an hour.
Mr. Bonano said the majority of the carriers can deliver 10 cars at a time. He said the carrier should be making deliveries around 6 or seven times a month.
Mr. Correnti said the carrier would be there one or two times a week for about a half an hour to forty five minutes.
Mr. Casey said there was a question at the last meeting that the car carriers would not be delivering cars at the beginning or end of the school day.
Mr. Correnti said that they had to go to Mazda distribution. All indications are that they can. They asked for no carrier delivers between 7:30am and 9:30 am. Afternoon is a bit harder because of the range of time that people pick the children up. Mr. Shaker, dealership owner, sent his apologies, he is in CA. Mr. Bonano was here as he is in charge of all the Mazda’s operations. He is also investigating from Mazda if there is a possibility of a Saturday drop off and that’s unusual for deliveries on Saturday, but if he can get permission to avoid a weekday delivery, he will.
6. Mr. Correntti spoke with attorney Mr. Goldberg since the last meeting to discuss all the concerns and they discussed test drives on and off the site and specifically the discussion was if perspective buyers would not be taking the car from the end of Greenledge street, and driving up and down that street. He said that they learned that there is a very specific format that dealers handle test drives and in this case customers will be up in the showroom areas waiting for the salesman to bring the car to the customer at the showroom. There is a distinct route on how the cars leave the dealership. In this instance, the car demo route will be down their driveway on DiPietro down Swampscott Road to the light so that any customers that are test driving are safer, and they would come back the same way. The
believe that will work so there will not be test drives happening on Greenledge Street. I think that is all. That is what we were able to accomplish.
Mr. Goldberg said that when Mr. Correnti says we he means between his client and him, he doesn’t mean he and I. When he talks about an agreement he means between Stutz and his client, not my client. The board suggested that we get together, so he called me. He said there are three issues here, preservation of our rights in litigation, Safety and aesthetics. Mr. Goldberg said he and Correnti spoke and had some general discussion. He expected to receive a document they would propose that would be part of the conditions placed on the license. He said the whole point of the litigation is to determine the rights of access on Greenledge. So the land court could come along, it’s even provided for in the lease that the court may come along and say there are no rights to Greenledge Street. It goes on
to say that the lessor has the right to get out if they do not have rights to Greenledge Street and he think that is a fair characterization of the lease terms, but what that tells you also id that it’s a fair characterization of the litigation as well which is the litigation of the right to use Greenledge Street. He said access is an issue. He said that unless Mr. Correnti objects, he believes most of the points made were via emails that came from Mr. Keilty and asked Mr. Correnti if he agreed with that statement.
Mr. St. Pierre said that we went through a lot of this at the last meeting. He said that the LB asked them to try to come up with some reasonable options. He said that the accommodations before him tonight seem to reasonable to him.
Mr. Goldberg said that the bottom line is that they have not done what they said they were going to. He said these conversations have been between the landlord and the tenant. He said they have yet to give him any documents and that there are still other issues. Let’s talk about the lines they say they blacked out. They did not black out the lines in front of the parts and repair building. They removed the door, but until now they haven’t eliminated it not withstanding what they said. They could move it anywhere in the building and still have that access to Greenledge. He said he believes there is still are pass issue between the showroom and the lot. There is a door to an a electrical room on lot 563a that passes over the outside still over hangs on the street and the barbed wire
hasn’t been removed. He said they thought they agreed to remove it. That’s the point the conversation was between landlord and tenant. He said he or the LB is still yet to see any documentation. He said when it comes to more important things like the car carrier and test drives, Mr. Correnti said they are operational and he reserves the right to change his mind. Why not make it a condition of the license and if it becomes an issue he can come back to the LB. He asked why should the children be at risk pending the applicants operations. He said the LB should do as much as they can to reduce the risk to the children and if they find it interferes with their business they can either opt out of their lease or they can come back to the Board. But he asked what rights they have and he said he feels those are some of the issues. He said there is also an issue of a power line and an access issue. He passed out a letter to the Board.
Mr. Goldberg said that it is up to the Board to determine safety and access. He said if no permit is issued and they open they are in violation and if the LD issues a license with conditions then it becomes up to any neighbor or person in the area to call and report a violation.
There being no further comments, Mr. St. Pierre asked for a motion to close the public hearing.
Mr. Casey motioned to close the public hearing portion of the meeting.
Mr. Lee seconded.
Mr. Casey said that he did not believe conditions were necessary because the matters of the land dispute that are the primary issue here are in the land court.
Mr. Casey motioned to approve the application for the Class I Auto Dealers License along with that goes a Class II Auto Dealer’s License, along with that is the capacity for a total of 200 new and used cars to be allowed on the lot at any one time. He said if there is room at any time for more than that, that he may come to the LB with a certified engineers plans and that number can be changed. Hours of operation: Service will be 7am-5pm Monday through Friday, Saturday 7 am-4pm and Sales will be Monday-Thursday 9am- 8pm, Friday and Saturday 9-6 and Sunday 12-5pm.
Mr. Lee seconded.
Mr. St. Pierre said all are in favor. Motion carried.
Commun-
ications: Report from Det. Sgt. Page regarding a complaint of a storage box on site at BP Gas station that has a Class II Auto Dealers License. Report will be placed in file.
OLD/NEW:
Ms. Pagliaro said that another notice from the ABCC came from the ABCC regarding underage drinking at O’Neill’s. They will be holding a Hearing in Boston on January 8, 2013.
Approved: Meeting minutes from November 8th & 15th, 2012 meetings.
Mr. Casey motioned to approve.
Mr. Lee seconded.
Mr. St. Pierre said all are in favor. Motion carries.
Adjourn-
ment: Mr. Lee motioned to adjourn.
Mr. St. Pierre seconded.
Respectfully submitted,
Melissa Pagliaro
Clerk of the Board
Submitted: December 19, 2012
Approved: January 14, 2013
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