spend you know couple hours during the day doing things within the community to serve it this is something worth doing so please go to the website and learn more about it then on monday october seventeenth two thousand and sixteen at seven p m town clerk will be some in the south but this is for the presidential election there will be early voting available to residents between october twenty fourth and november fourth there will be extended i was here in town h national blue ribbon school in the category in the category of exemplary high performing school so schools that are awarded exemplary high performing school category have a high number of achieving students measured by state assessment this isn't something that butler applied for in fact it was a surprise the schools are nominated by the state department of education and then the u s department of education in washington chooses what schools get the award  thank you to mike mcallister who is the who is now the chandlery middle school principal but he will be flying to washington d c to receive this award and also thank you to butler's new principal daniel  begin with the first item of business the application for not following the rich license transfer i may have a number of opening comments and i would go through some history i think that be helpful for the folks at home and those in the audience because we've received a lot of e mails on this matter i think there may be some confusion about some aspects of this whole issue and the facts but before i begin just want to make a comment on tonight's proceeding hopefully that at the last mean it's tempered nineteenth emotions ran pretty high minded as well and i pod publicly apologize for that hopefully we can conduct tonight's meeting without that occurring again difficult to do i understand that weighs in gentlemen but often we can conduct it in a civil way listen to one another gather information  board wants to do what's best for belmont and we want to hear all of you in terms of the comments that you will make so again this is keep that in my place i'm going to just go through some information here i think it's really helpful because i think there's some confusion i want to go through the history of licenses in belmont just to the loading dock application just briefly in chapter one thirty eight which is the licensing provision from asho was and then we'll invite the applicant star market to join us there's been a revision in their application i want to go through those we'll talk about that and then i will ask for input from the community of folks out here in attendance but i'm actually going to define what that is going to be about in terms of the type of input we're looking for so before i let me sale of alcoholic beverages to be drunk on the premises of clubs having an eighteen hole regulation golf course i wonder who that was for in two thousand and four chapter fourteen authorized the selection to grant up to three licenses for sale of all ever held beverages in restaurants having at least one hundred thirty and not more than two hundred fifty seats in two thousand and six chapter three ninety five authorized the selection to grant one license for sale of all alcoholic beverages not to be drunk on premises also known as all alcohol retail license that license contains a restriction on transferability once issued a license authority shall not approve the transfer of such license to any other person organization corporation or cation i do remember that the beta time meeting that same year chapter three ninety six authorized the selectmen to grant not more than two licenses for sale of wine in malt beverages not to be drunk on the premises also known as to beer and wine retail licenses that also contain the restriction on transferability in the same year two thousand and six chapter three ninety seven authorized to select to create special one day licenses for the sale of alcoholic beverages under general law shop the one thirty eight section eight this effectively amended chapter fourteen of two thousand and four which was the special legislation two thousand and fourteen the most recent year for chapter fifteen increased the beer and wine pouring licenses from eight to sixteen effectively amend chapter one thirty eight of one in one thousand nine hundred seventy that those licenses did not contain the transferability provisions as i stated earlier from two thousand and six and two thousand and fourteen is again chapter sixteen increased all alcohol retail licenses from one to two which is the discussion this evening on the all alcohol license and increased beer and wine retail licenses from two to four effectively meant it chapter three ninety five and three ninety six of two thousand six again these licenses did not contain transferability restrictions as the ones in two thousand and six look to go through the summary of the licenses that we currently have just the history of the loading d application in march the original reach a license approved by this board of selectmen a may first two thousand and fourteen there were three other applicants if i recall and we wanted to the loading dock were happy to do that at the time the conditions were known by the explicit by this board that there would be no sale of tobacco and lottery tickets in the loading dock and mr macaca agreed to that request to contain their missile cock his license was approved by this board selected on june first two thousand and fifteen and then there was a request made at beginning of this year on january twenty fifth two thousand and sixteen to obtain a restaurant license that section fifty while a section twelve of chapter one thirty eight requests for legal opinion and the ability to hold both licenses refer to town council jerry twenty fifth two thousand and sixteen the council notifies attorney or landy who is the attorney for the loading dock on february fift thousand and sixteen on the probation application return which is codified in the mashona wash chapter one thirty eight section fifteen or seventeen somewhere in there there's a restriction if they get seventeen then on  june twenty seventh two thousand and sixteen this poor selection received an application from the loading dock to use the current all alcohol license as collateral for a loan and we approve that that evening and then of course finally so just briefly on chapter one thirty eight here's the provision that restricted it now it's changed prior to its section seventeen unless a trustee authorized by this chat the local licensing authority shall not grant licenses to so on august tenth two thousand and sixteen governor baker signed into law an act relative to job creation in a workplace workforce development this act in part of data the liquor control act mass general watch chapter one thirty eight so what that in fact did and i'm not going to read the whole thing we got this advisory from the called beverages control commission it now provides if certain conditions are met as part of the economic development bill and i have talked to our representatives about it it does allow them now within the commonwealth for an establishment to hold for a business to hold both a porn license of the section twelve and a full retail license under section fifteen with certain conditions in terms of consideration in terms of withdrawing your request to transfer this license because now the loading dock could hold both a section twelve korean license in a section fifteen retail license level four yeah ok ok i'm going to read as so since we met on the nineteenth star market has been based on the feedback that they received both from this board and also from the folks that were there has provided to favorable you know mr kelly we appreciate the fact that you've considered some of the comments that were made and even then came back to us with some concession so i'm just going to read this we believe we can make up so as a follow up to the publically advertised for selected september nineteenth meeting regarding our upper case for the provability like this purchase transfer we like to propose the following modifications to our application so in fact we have modified your application is that correct we sincerely hope that you see these changes as a genuine attempt to compromise on all of the concerns raised at that meeting we are in the business to service the residents of every city or town we serve with a fresh food service grocery store we can provide stock market has done this for over one hundred one years each store we operate must reflect the citizens as well as a city council store of values and with this said we intend to continue to be a leader as well as an example of a true community partner especially with dharma in its great people we believe we can make the farming changes without dramatically affecting our business model yet with our understanding that as a result the space will be significantly smaller than the rest of our stores that sell beer wine and liquor and i'm going to release there's a number of them that's these here with me a gentleman in audience number one we will decrease the size of the liquor sales department by cutting the footprint down from approximately two thousand square feet which was the original application to one thousand four hundred seventy four square feet this is a twenty six point three percent decrease in size plaza beer for thirty packs of beer before you and i use neon signs in our lighting related to our liquor offerings in or around the store number five we will not display any liquor beer or wine outside it doesn't need a footprint proved by the board number six our hours of operation to sell or will be dictated by the tone ordinance which is monday through saturday ten a m to eleven p m and sundays turning into six p m number seven will add an additional full time department manager dedicated to this new department as well as additional part time it's supported the off hours number eight will comply with the belmont fire department's request to upgrade the store's emergency communication equipment prior to the introduction of liquor sales of any kind at the store this was completed already  preferences and create their own six pack we intend to utilize high end attractive wouldn't fix fixtures for i want displace coolers to offer cold sparkling and flat ones as well as cold beer all of this takes up more space than try shelving yet pack out will be slightly less i also want to mention our history of being a good citizen and operate all of our stores which possess liquor licenses we have own multiple a collection this is for over a decade whether by acquisitions or mergers and not once have we ever sold or transfer a license that tend to address this concern regarding the lack of restrictions in transferability on the license please see the attached transfer ability of the asset i mean we've got a moment i believe the stock that will eliminate your concerns additionally are for combined stores which sell alcohol  have only received one previous violation from the state resulting in discipline of the alcoholic beverages control commission but that incident occurred almost ten years ago when the business to sell product by satisfy and in serving our guests we do not  never have had any desire to give up or sell a license as a matter of fact we are in the process of pursuing several other licensees and massachusetts towns we serve again please review these proposed modifications with us and see a desire to continue to be a very good business partner with this wonderful town of belmont will update or put application immediately reflect the changes if that is what it takes to gain your approval and that's signed by mr kelly v p and general manager star mark i'm going to read the non transferability me  at four hundred thousand dollars plus it could be used as a cold as collateral at a bank such as the current owner exercised we agreed not to sell the license to any third party who plans to move the license off the current site of five thirty five mass however we reserve the right to transfer the license to any new owner at the same location an extremely and as extremely unlikely as that would be in this instance the event of a merger or acquisition which occurs in our overall corporate chain reserve the ability to allow the new owners the rights of the license as well as the ability alignments to move the license in the event that a new location for a storm damage became available we would like to move our store to another location within the town but still maintain the liquor license again although extremely unlikely in the find the remains are continued understanding they believe that this license has no transferability restrictions attached to it other than the requirements for board rather pro who was on the general us chapter one thirty eight and other applicable laws and those restrictions we have voluntarily agreed to above of course as always the board would have the ability to comment and provide input in the end like the event that a transfer into a different location proposed in the distance future again signed by joe kelly  certainly how it how it applies to the town belmont in every town that we do business and we try to appreciate what the town wants and most importantly what our customers and the citizens want we presented those to you in good faith in exactly what we'd like to do the transfer realty piece and voluntarily conceding to what we conceded to i think is important we are not into the bit in the business of trying to solve reasons we've never done it when i'm interested in doing it and we want to service our customers that's really what we want to do the other piece i think is important to know this is part of a bigger plan  although the store is one of my favorite stores that we have in the fleet and steve duran has been with the company for thirty four years and been running the store for quite some time i think it's important he eats sleeps and bleeds our star market in the town of belmont and i can tell you that  as i hear it every time i meet with him at same time the bigger picture is the fact that the store is getting tired the exterior the building the interior the building and we do have plans to spend an additional two happening in dollars on a major remodel in the she's part of that to try to service i guess with a full service grocery look more like mount auburn is that the idea well mob or more also have a plan to spend about two and a half million dollars and modern stores also tired in our mind we haven't invested in our stores in my opinion first of all i took the company over about a year ago i've been the grocery business mainly in new england for thirty two years so i'll tell you that tomorrow we also want to revitalize what we are going to do is going to put them on nice wooden fixtures with the wind we displayed on and we'll be selling cold beer in most of it will be domestic if not all of it will be  wine or liquor so it's one of our smallest a promise we have so it will not look like monarto montauban has how many square feet you're probably closer to the mob or stores probably over ten percent a verse of ten percent of our selling space but it's a totally different shaped store where feet over two thousand twelve thousand ok so i'm trying to understand how liquor sales here fits in with the concept store ok so you know what i felt in mount auburn was i walked and it was full service what will the concept be for the belmont store and how will how will the sales fit in with that ok so if you look at our current store today and i didn't bring that to the new remodel print but we're we where we proposed how is this liquor department is exactly were the the produce department to the left yeah if you went straight down the first and second aisle that's where this would be housed in the back of the store in the back of the store by where the deli is in front of the deli correct in front of the deli right  use neon signs and or lighting related to our liquor offerings in or around the store how about outside the store known as i don't want to make this look like a package deal or not we will not do that but if you know you'll agree no exteriors liquor side rest the budweiser sign no sir we will not do ok the other thing you said is we will add an additional full time department manager dedicated to the new department in the display area at all times so we'll have will be a forty hour full time will also be an additional part timers in addition to in addition to same way with my store directors there since he was running the struggle in the school director and there will be some assistance who will have a full time to partner manager will also have some part time as little support to department as well we're hoping to add somewhere to the city of eight to twelve jobs ok i didn't like your previous proposal to have kiosks able to secure it and off hours ok we as the licensing board my understanding is cannot impose a condition that prohibits transfer ability an unlawful condition if it's agreed by the applicant i guess i would also point out however that because it's a license condition future board could agree to and i'm not here to remove the conditions so it  transfer ability for restrictions on them as proposed by the home the home rule application by the town is are those limitations on the transfer for ability  equally and when you use the word yes but equally subject to change by the local board or would you have to go back to the legislature and now the now that the statute has changed is that think the twenty fourteen special act which says the licenses are subject to chapter one thirty eight and does not include any restrictions on transferability applied only to the three licenses that were authorized or essentially amends the statute applies to all six of the six being to all alcohol and for beer and why my own view is that it applies to all six and that therefore the two thousand and six limitations on transferability  are no longer in effect as to any of the licenses but that's not a question that's being getting to us tonight and i guess i'll reserve my right to revisit that question if it actually comes up george could you please or just identify yourself george town council and just on this point here you know one of the things that they were going to ask us to hold to look into for us is that whole point that you know that's just a and i haven't looked into this in depth we've had a lot of residents expressed concern as to why the fourteen licenses were not have the same restrictions as the two thousand and six licenses but i think a point we need to look at is whether the two thousand and six licenses based on the two two thousand and fourteen special legislation has it have in fact change area of town i grew up in has dramatically changed in the last thirty forty years and boy we would have never dreamed that kind of traffic and congestion thirty years ago  presumably you want the license because it would be good for your business but do you see it contributing you know how are you going to is that going to just add to the traffic in the congestion and i don't think so and i'll tell you from from our experience what we traffic i think that the really the business case on it for us as of may just put an extra in the carriage which is more about convenience for our shoppers and anything else and since you're going to have no exteriors right it's not the case that you're going to be targeting the person who's driving around looking for a liquor stores correct correct my last question we have and all alcoholic beverage retail belmont centers not too far away and then we have several establishments that sell specialty bears craft beers and wines and so how do you see your application and this is from the statute how do you see your application either serving a public need or in the public interest in belmont i mean do we really need another liquor store in belmont how do you see your request as either satisfying a public needn't have and or public interest to the tatar and i think first of all i think that based on our customers feedbacks as well as folks that work for us there are still an awful lot of folks are leaving for watertown a family versus buying in belmont i've been in all these additional retailers and specialty stores i think they'll do a terrific job to me it's i'll say it again i think it's really about augmenting the offer in town and given the consumer choice it doing their grocery shopping whether or not they want to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner or a six pack of beer so i do think it'll keep some folks potentially from leaving town more importantly i think it's more about augmenting the offer that's already here and if i could have one point i would say the the overwhelming support at the first hearing as well as these six hundred plus signatures shows that there is a public need and want for the look a license to be in this location additionally with the foodies application being approved several months ago you are now taking a license from an area that has one in a grocery store right there and you move into an area where there is not one or it's people the only thing i would add is all the support i heard the last hearing really was star market mentioned it was four ad that was mentioned more than star market that and like i said they ask is there we can and we go where are you based from my office is in west bridgewater ok so you're a massachusetts company we are and maybe some suffer some clarity because i think in and i've seen this from when i was a competitor before i took over star market the story names of change the number of times we shot a star not just a star mark and i think what's important to know the reason i came in the takeover star market is we were reviving the brand this is going to be a star market for a long time to come one hundred  two years old this year we think that there's towns like belmont that deserve a star market that may be a little bit different than the shahs our stock market brand is much more of a food service much more of a variety of what have service oriented cetera so we have a major focus on star market the stage and in my office although i share an office with chavez we're all separate different part of the building i have my own team and obviously we have our own store directors case and you you will not own this license i guess the way it will be the license even in a loading dock does not apply so i would agree with that i guess where we look at is is it's an asset it's an asset like our buildings i would we own the most we don't o nobody has a property interest in it right now for whatever it is that's because i think you know people have been confused about that and i just want to make sure that we all understand that there's no property right involved in what he's in and i appreciate that i think it's a very good  so how many stores does dark market have in mass choose one thousand and how many stores and we covered this last time how many stores are you allowed to have  don't i would say belmont number one based on the the ask from our customers number to the size of the store so we can make it work we can we can fit it in without reducing our grocery offers and what have you most importantly we don't have to reboot reduce our fresh fresh department smaller we don't have to decrease the size of produce or meat or seafood or the deli of the bakery in order to fit in ok with regard to the other four that are in existence now what is the footprint of in fenway within the next sixteen months eighteen months is probably similar in size it's a little bit bigger to display product outside of the aisles down the road we build a new building a modern i already commented on which is well over two thousand square feet that they are all unless you're driving by cars you're coming from work loyals low customer shops in belmont typically in belmont very rarely do we see them in the modern stuff ok which by the way is unique it's unique and we see that a lot more stock markets than we do with a traditional grocery s concerted effort and we've made a decision corporately that we're going to pull the two companies apart and by doing that we're focused on putting like a license fflick alyson's into star markets versus the shaws stores and we think we have a number of massachusetts that would work is manifest we can grow it up to as much as nine over the next couple years out and i hope to through two thousand and nineteen so there wasn't as much of an interest from the fire management i have a lot of experience with little licenses in grocery stores and it really comes down to the customer the customer want in the towns approval so why now that's the reason and additionally if and i believe mr duran made the comment the last hearing at the time of the original hearings for these licenses we were only allowed the stock market was only allowed to have five licenses terms of the debate this evening so we've already talked about the transferability issue it's not of the bait of a point we can't deny based on transferability there's no transferability restrictions on this license and i have had a number of e mails and calls about concerned about the fact that it's been transferred in an economic windfall that will that will be provided to the transferee i share those concerns but it's not a debatable point this which is great and that's the reason we should grant this license that again is not import that will listen to again this evening because it's not a relatable point to the debate the debate is about whether we grant we approve a license to star market take into consideration some of the amendments to the license that they've provided so i'll try to provide some latitude on that because i know a lot of folks are here we've got a lot of e mails i know it's a very a point ever an issue in town that's become somewhat contentious unfortunately and again i would ask you please be civil in your comments to this board and will do anything everything we can to answer any questions you may have him listen to all input for a period of time so purports to be then the board can take that into consideration and give it is much weight is it thinks is so in keeping with the state statute this is something we can consider considering thank you for that jim ok with this i find the so my own is a bit familiar i've come to speak against the proposal to transfer the alcohol license to the star market in waverley square as many of you know i served on the board selectmen the time that mark was talking about when for the first time in belmont history the board voted to allow little licenses to retail establishment by purpose and in talking about this is what's going to be the impact on small businesses and on the purpose of bringing the licenses the belmont to originally was to encourage small businesses to open and thrive in our town as well as to have it add to the white talent and to our business centers it's difficult to envision how small establishment can privately face of competition from large chains such as foodies and of course star market in two thousand and two bill maher's vision twenty one implementation committee hosted several forums for town business owners and residents these forms led the vision committee to the following conclusions among others and if i may i'd like to quote from its report the business owners in belmont and those most especially those who manage their own stores make wonderful neighbors they contribute generously to town causes both financially and in goods and services they build personal and caring relationships with customers they contribute time and energy to public events which is good for the businesses itself and good for the town as a whole thriving business centers contribute to building a sense of community they help to define a town by providing public places where people can meet but a town lacks inviting commercial locations such as these and the residents seek alternatives in other towns we lose one of the essential means by which we call here as a community a sense of community is vital to our town's welfare in future it inspires willing volunteers i'm a commitment to address local issues a sense of connectedness and shared responsibility for one another as individuals and for our collective welfare unquote from the vision committee in two thousand and two i urge the board to consider the need to preserve the viability of the small businesses in town which could well be endangered by allowing the transfer of this license to start market  my i don't want to have an outside the boundaries of which permitted and hearing and it's my understanding that size is not something that can be admissible it's also my understanding the competition is not something so for us to encourage by listening to comments that address those two aspects which in fact are not admissible is i think a yet mr chairman jim i think any time you hear from the public you're going to get some wandering off the point you know and i think we have to exercise a little bit of latitude as long as another way i don't view you sammy and me mark are and you mark and myself as being the only people in this room who are subject to the state statute with regard to a hearing on the liquor license there are rules there are there are things that constrain our consideration and by constraining our consideration it also constrains the public consideration so i don't want the public to think you know that that they can make an argument that we can it's not only goes to the competition issue or close to a fee an issue issue in terms of their license status versus the license status as announced and the town meeting which approved the issuance of the license which is being sought to be transferred but let me start out to address to slacken williams issue the language is clear on the chapter one thirty eight that this board has br discretion very broad discretion to deny or approve this license it really is not constrained as much as you might think by chapter one thirty eight the board has broad discretion to determine public need and public good with respect to whether to grant a license to sell alcoholic beverages or approve a transfer and to answer the question size does matter that is one of the factors under the ballerina test what is the existing operation versus what is the new operation i heard these gentlemen say they were reducing the size from two thousand to fifteen hundred i think there's a fair chance they'll be back in two years three years and say gee we're running a good operation we haven't had any violations would really like to expand and then at that point you have a problem because once you've approved the transfer for this concept it becomes much more difficult to limit expansions because that's a different type of standard for an existing call alcohol license holder the the license that was granted to the loading dock in two thousand and fourteen revitalization and that obviously fit with the loading dock and that's why they were issued the license and town meeting was clear that they never would have approved a license to a supermarket chain to conduct a full scale liquor operation because regardless of whether it's two thousand square feet of fifteen hundred there is a full scale liquor operation going on within that store and i'd like to quote i have the transcript chairman halo he had stated at that meeting i know there's a concern that we're not going to up open up a package store in town and i indicated that clearly that is not the board's intent and so i think we would look at the applicant in the context of the issuance of the licenses and whether we believe from our perspective whether it furthers the economic vitality of the particular area in which the business would be established and it's consistent with what we want to have within that particular area so lekman rojas later on it during the meeting said right now there are there's one full alcohol retail license in town the sphere did go on may my client you may know we would like to increase that by one to two we feel that there are a parts of town that could easily support another fine facility in to stablish mn such as spirited cool may and we hear a lot of people wanting that so we're responding to that request from residents so if we could attract another establishment like the spirit who i'm a that's what we're recommending would like to recommend that somewhere else in town not a package store again tom meeting would not have approved the proposal that's before you when there was a lot of discussion about how would this board be able to control that a new concept such as the one that's before you today wouldn't be before the board and the overwhelming consensus of that town meeting as reflected in that transcript was that the use be a small business a specialty store like my client's door like the loading dock in a full scale what a store operation i don't you would would not have gotten approval for the issuance of that license if the same proposal was here before town meeting at that at that point in time the while star market they may not technically be a package to a deriding a full scale l the objective of issuing this life in the first place star market's been there for a long time previously shaw's now back to star they don't need this license to survive the air that license isn't bringing new economic vitality to that store maybe a couple of other people are going to get hired the testimony was there aren't going to be additional customers coming in will be the same customers so there won't be any traffic but star market is part of a twenty two hundred stores national chain supermarket conglomerate they don't need a liquor license to survive in the town of belmont as i said the board has considerable that discretion and in assessing the public need that's not in the literal sense that was suggested with all due respect by starr market that you know the customers want to have signed a petition it's your job as the board to determine what's in the public need and public need doesn't mean people want it public need means appropriateness for the particular location and whether it's in the public interest to have a full scale or corroborate with then a large supermarket in town or whether the towns are already being adequately serviced with the existing dispensary so i think that that climate  made the one of the important factors in deciding and to go to select and millenniums comment about what should we be considering the views of the inhabitants is important and i would put special emphasis on the elected town meeting members who are elected by the town to serve their interests at a town meeting and if you review that transcript it's all the while knowing there was only one town meeting member out of probably fifteen who testified on this issue that indicated maybe we should have some flexibility the overwhelming consensus was we need to button this down we need to make sure that this doesn't spend out of control so the select whom won't be able to regulate and keep what they originally wanted years down the road the  came forward was i think i saw the quote this license is like lot live or i got to get rid of it well he doesn't have to get rid of it it's a very nice store i drove by a very nice location and and with the food service he can run both businesses profitably he doesn't need to transfer this like the reason why the transfer is how he has his four hundred thousand dollars on the table to be able to transfer the license there will be competition from that all for that license for business folks who would accomplish the objective that town meeting wanted when that license was issued there are a number you saw them when you had the beer and wine licenses the loading dock will be able to get it adequately compensated for that license without it having to go to star market they'll be a number of other businesses that fit the mold of what the board and what the town meeting members wanted to have happen back in two thousand and thirteen the  i won't talk about the transfer restrictions because you know you would ask that be restricted all i would say is that if this ford approves this transfer to star market my client is entitled as a matter of law to transfer to a liquor store because he found consuls already climbin it but that transfer ability restriction won't attach to the license i know we reserve his rights but fundamental fairness dictates that if my client would accomplish for you want to transfer out this will operate in is a distinction without a difference in terms of a liquor store that running a liquor store within a supermarket it's bad precedent for the boy to set that eighteen months ago this licensee was awarded the why since we have a very unusual situation here i've been doing this over twenty five years and have never seen a license move and have been existing operate operate with a flooring license have another license and now he's basically just leveraging that license to support the restaurant operation apparently it's they do x it just to only hold the why since normally people get returns on licenses because they made substantial investments in a retail business and then they sell that retail business and that's where the value of the license that isn't going on here and i just think it's a bad precedent for this forward to set to allow this to happen and it's going to open up the flow open up the gates for my client and other you saying that if we deny this application your client will voluntarily agree to restrict transfer ability of their license to the town is that what i'm hearing  we can hear you if you want if you want to speak and come to the microphone but you've done a five so please i'm elaine abend i'm the one who first came to the town ten years ago and petitioned the town for liquor licenses i grew up here my family lives here that's why we're here you want to now go against everything we stood by when i worked with angelo friends say and the whole purpose was to bring small business they came to a little store in winchester saw the work we've done we have lived up to that for ten years we have suffered we have worked in the red we no one gets a trophy right out of the chute i'm sorry you have to work you need a good business plan i'm back in work at corporate america to help support my kids college education and that's what life is if you want to now we have lived where we could have sold the only people of approaches to buy our store it's a beautiful store we have said no no no if you're going to put us in a position where we have a giant conglomerate owned by a thirty billion dollar asset management company out in new york city who's chairman of the board is dnd quayle then yes we will then turn around you would be setting the precedent and tomorrow i'll be on the phone with every major liquor license that i can and sell my store because i'm not going to be put under i lived up to our agreement we have worked so hard we have suffered marriage has suffered our children have suffered and if you're going to put us in a position seriously that we're going to be in here then i'm going to take my money and run i'm going to take the highest bidder and we w wonder stan when the spirit applied for their license made the investment in their story they did it on the basis that nobody's license was going to be transferable that they were going to be competing with similar types of businesses they're fine with competing on a level playing field but asking and i took the ride up tonight from this store it's a very short ride from the spirit go i made a star market they no one could have envisioned that  would have to compete with the likes of star market that's not competition that's a fairness issue for the investment that was made and what i think we'll all acknowledge pushing square is a very under served in need of economic revitalization  this store stands out as a beacon of hope for further economic development there the only other thing that i would say is the existing number of existing dispensary so i think was already commented on as as being sufficient and on the traffic issue i don't think i think a licensee in this situation given the traffic there was i've seen credible traffic tonight when we were driving around various parts of town there's no independent data with regard to there won't be additional traffic they won't be they're obviously going to be advertising they're going to have flyers saying they have these wines for sale this beer for sale and so forth so the notion that nobody's going to will evening my name is jeff liberty i live at forty three was the street and i have for the last six and a half years have no more relevant than that fact is how many years i intend to live on forty billion forty six so god willing for thirty or forty more years i'll be living at that address as will my family and we will be consuming more or less the same amount of liquor at that address as we do now  my life in living in belmont what noticed in the last six and a half years the transformation of the town mostly for the positive has been a lot of new business development there's been a lot of new families moving in and deciding to stay and why i'm bringing this up is because i think we need to have a comprehensive approach to how we govern the town and if it turns out that star market can sell more liquor and raise more revenue for the town where we just passed an override so that we can keep the same number of teachers and where we can't seem to pave our roads that need to be paved i might be in favor of that as a citizen ok i'm also in favor of small business i shop  shop at the craft beer cellar i shop more often at the non auburn star where i live and part of the reason i do that i bring my business there is because my wife and i work kids are in school we're busy one we would prefer that and that does not preclude me spending money at gourmet i buy different line when i go in there i buy different beer when i go to the craft your cellar and i don't think there's any scenario where the winds and beer and liquor that are going to be sold these different establishment are going to be even similar it's just a different market it's a different shopping experience and i would like to rather than spending my money in cambridge i would like to spend it in belmont when i go to the and man town meeting member precinct four i remember the meetings and we discussed the liquor license and i could've been happier i remember watching you guys with a spirited gore may when you were just applying and so excited that you were coming to town i remember craft beer oh my god it felt like christmas so but i am from new york in new york you can fill your tank up with gas and get it to budweiser so have spirited use these markets don't compete with each other i bought it for me i buy my client gifts there i get i love the beer seller because my younger clients they like the craft beer that they have so here's here's the issue that i'm seeing and that is that this is a license transfer the license is going to go to someone my concern is that we'll have someone compete with my two favorite stores in a different way i love star market you disabled you give so much to the food pantry done so many things for belmont that it feels like a small town store but they're the wal mart and you guys are the lord and taylor and the nordstrom you guys with the good stuff and these guys i can wear my sweats and flip flops and just get some crap from them by that's the biggest difference that's the biggest difference they are not going to impact my sale i like the way you treat me i love the customer service that you can put a gift basket to gather for me or i tell you ladies i kind of have this feeling for this kind of care you don't get that from these guys it's a completely different target market in my eyes and the one thing i would suggest is for people here that love these two stores as much as i do i'm going to promise them a certain amount that i will spend every month in their store so that they don't have to worry about this and i wish hundreds of belmont people would do that find a chat and say this is what i'm good for every single month so that they don't worry about star market getting a slice th i will not read my two pages are you and i know on the issue of transfer ability i will simply cultural question given what you're already starting to hear based on the fact that now the prohibition on transfer ability has magically disappeared when will the board of selectmen have a public and meaningful discussion on this rule and hopefully bring an article to annual town good point i think that's something we really need to consider and look at us to what is the what is the intent of this community regards his licenses and we're happy to do that to the tutor finally town meeting member precinct  have interesting places to go and if we give a wry sense to star market we are doing something that will discourage all of these businesses where they are liquor businesses what they are restaurants whether they are the interesting stores that are beginning to open up because they won't be different things in different areas and you know that belmont center is certainly much improved but road belmont street carter primate quote that is struggling and that struggle by the way extends down to make no your wine which is make huge has served belmont in the same family for fifty years when belmont was dry and you can get cheap wine there as well as expensive wine but the point is we need to do everything we can to try and encourage the small businesses that will bring people into t businesses will not thank you if i think you very much and when they started talking about the issue of granting liquor licenses a liquor license going to a place like shabbos or star market was actually one of the fears everyone always had it's not what we want in belmont for me massachusetts brand what they sell our brands they do not support small businesses small wineries small products everything that that business touches as they trickle down that it's our market they're supporting big corporations they're not going to be supporting small businesses are going to be something that's already established you go to find something that wants a fighting chance every dollar that they're looking for this thought into their business model now i know it might be different in new york but small business such as they want every dollar they can get they have something for everybody so if you want your inexpensive wine your and i think she's got a great idea the town meeting should address this because this should not have happened and transferring ability was a big concern of ours and i'm happy to see that some of you selectman are listening to what  rigs were like no neon signs and so on and so forth and the lawyer who came for spirit ago i'm a i'm very glad he educated me again and he was absolutely right in the spirit of the whole thing is small business and memory mentioned wombat i just shake i drove through gore in new hampshire the other day and saw nothing else i don't want to see another war so i encourage general the little businesses  license even though i was back in someone else i totally agree you join a great job so please consider addressing this as a town thing and not let this happen again  serve a purpose and i want to point out just a couple of things i have no nothing against anyone in this room really and shop at star market my whole life i shop at the stock market i'm going to continue to do so i want my cuisinart pans you know you know art for water friends my husband actually you know it's a personal quaintance with watt but nothing against anyone here but i want to point out yes it's great they've decreased the space from two thousand to fourteen hundred my total retail space in my store is nine hundred square feet so what's going to happen to me i don't want i don't want i don't want to transfer my license to anyone i really joe i we love our store we want to stay put and we really  you know we like belmont we want to be part of this town we've had several events you know in support of local businesses and groups there's not much more i can add you know i been said and you know and i understand you know what you guys are asking for and keeping the meeting moving along but boy i don't know how we're going to survive you know fourteen thousand feet versus nine hundred that's right th hello everyone my name is mary west moment and i'm new to sort of the business area within belmont i own two retail shops one in cushing square and one in belmont center which so i have sort of a unique perspective in the room here but i recently formed the cushing square merchants association and i'm sort of speaking on their behalf and what i wanted to sort of reiterate what i've heard the sea evening from many people is the idea of star market right down the road from a lot of local businesses carrying these liquor licenses and how challenging it will be for them to attract continue to attract the customers that they have when star market is talking about the convenience factor of picking up when you go shopping and in my mind belmont is a town of really interesting businesses and they have people come here because it's a destination spot they can go to a consignment shop they can go to a really cool liquor store they can go to an awesome piers store they can do all these things and it's become a destination spot for these interesting small businesses and i think if we take that away it's it's really tricky for these small businesses to succeed with a liquor license right down the road a star market and i do think they do a lot for the community that's great but that's not going to change with this but i think all of these small businesses do a lot for the community with small pockets we all have small pockets but we do so much for the schools and you know the different events that go on in town and that's going to be harder and harder for us to do a small business is giving to the town if our pockets are getting smaller and smaller so i think ultimately their idea of being a small business giving to the community that's not good chances they're still going to get the same amount that they give to the community without having a liquor license and i think that sort of speaks to keep them where they are we love having star market there but i don't feel like the liquor license is going to assist any anybody in this town in keeping it it's really great destination play nique shops that people come from all over my businesses people come from linfield and i get these amazing people walking in they say you know what so i am line and then they check out all the stores around me and i think that is really unique we don't want to change that we want to keep small businesses coming to belmont and i think if we sit here and give a license to a big box store like this it really is going to prohibit some other small businesses from wanting to come in and it's just it will be difficult for us and i think it's going to be very difficult for the businesses that you know look hold these licenses now and i just wanted to put that out there as and i is the local stores that are available i look around this room and i see the owners of the places i go to and to me that has value and i want to repeat a lot of what's been said but i think the more local flavor you can have in a town the more that you can have people who are known entities that you can actually communicate with one on one that just fosters a better community for creating even more like that and i think that's my name is brian comer earth two eighty three fifth's march circle i will be brief yes before the selectmen vote on awarding this liquor license back in two thousand and fourteen i seem to remember that several selectman disclosed that their election campaigns had accepted contributions from the family that owns the loading dock i had no problem with awarding the liquor license to the loading dock but it just does not look right to allow a windfall profit for transferring it to a large supermarket chains or that would favor of the transfer and i went out and got all of those signatures that you saw today and yet in the belmont citizen for everybody and you people the whole precinct date is where the loading dock is based and where in favor of moving that to stomach and we're not considering the transferability issues they were only considered the application by starr ok that have opened up have are very they have a special quality to it and there are people that come from further out specifically to go to these shops you know the beer so there are people to drive past other liquor stores and whatever because they like that particular store and what they provide i've also worked in the bar and beer industry and i will say i don't shop at the moment stark but there is a lot of overlap in terms of what they do provide as what you  bonnie friedman precinct three to meeting member i appreciate how much belmont is changed over the years it's a lot more interesting as people said less boring last time that you can buy like wine at the farmer's market and  nobody's complaining i still nobody here is from the farmer's market i don't know complaining the stock market might get this i just wanted to speak to a couple of small things that nobody else has pointed out i think it's incredibly awesome the stock  consider getting rid of their tobacco i think that's a much bigger problem i think that belmont has really made a stand changing the age that you can buy tobacco in town and star market offering to take that off i just was so surprised that people didn't concentrate on that more i think that in itself should make a whole bunch of people really happy that it would be changing the kind of store near them and i think that most people in this room shop at all these small stores i love see you as well after seller i don't necessarily want to talk about amber stores so much as i just want to say i'm from new york also however i'm from a small town of about twelve thousand people and that's with the poor college is in session i have seen decimate a small town such as this is bigger than my hometown however i do think it's going to have an overarching about that might be unrecoverable from some of us i fully intend to work my butt off to continue to be as successful as i feel that we have been i would encourage all of you here to do the after seller i'll be super brief i'm still bitter about not getting this license in two thousand and fourteen we've worked our butts off and i'd say you know what it's too soon give us some time sort out some of the things that need to be sorted out with the transfer ability level the playing field for the licensees that are already in town and let's not grant this transfer right now  advertised hearing and in consideration of the rules and regulations of the town in the in the state they had their chance at the first hearing i understand has continued but all this competition in the additional folks in the town they didn't take the time in the first year it was in the themselves a package store and they're not going to operate this like a package and there's no neon signs now that economic development by allowing this train by allowing this transfer they will hire edition employees right most likely from the time they will be a new two point four million dollar  vestment in the store they also as several members of the town of node noted they will spend their money in town versus going to maybe their mount auburn store or a store in watertown or a different store so i believe there is an economic development impact by allowing this transfer what was originally talked about thank you finally i would say that they are a good member of the community they are invested in the community people know who steve is they know who the employees are they give to the community they provide  you know a service the community outside of just selling products and i believe that that is something that should be considered as well because people are bringing that up for the small businesses i believe that you know start does that as well all the time it's ok mr kelly they just m final comment someone i respect everybody's opinions in the room i as i said earlier i've been in every one of these stores the specialty stores in these retailers and i'm very impressed with what they do we're not in the business or a small business number one number two it was a comment made they were a big box and were owned by a conglomerate every one of our businesses is a standalone there is nobody as an investor or parent company that even knows that i'm here nor do they need to know that i'm here because it's a standalone business and it's a small business of one thousand stores lastly i would say if you don't think we support local businesses i have to do is walk around the store with steve doran and everywhere you see a local favorite sign his products that we buy locally massachusetts vermont boston wherever it may be that we sell within our four walls and will continue to do so and will also consider continue to be a good citizen regardless of the outcome strain your income and so that i am i think jo whiley subs up pretty well just it's just a comment on the big box some thirty eight thousand square feet it's a tiny store  comments i can certainly will let you know what my point of view is expressed some similar concerns at the last meeting i think you are a great story i think you do a lot for the community so i think that's wonderful i also greatly appreciate the fact that you made all of these concessions really do but i was there at the beginning as some of the other folks that spoke here today and the intent of these licenses was to grant them to small business to stablish mous at least my point was that they appreciate the point that you're a local store and you will continue to tough call i've been thinking about this for two weeks now and so have considered all the things you've laid out here but i'm not going to move forward through the slices simply because i believe that time meaning in the spirit intent of these laws was to grant them to local businesses and with all due respect you're really not even though you're in the community so that's my point of view gentleman you know i look at it a little differently ok marc i think star market has become a local business in town you know they really are i know that they help but p t a donating food and and and and treats all the time same with same with the food pantry you know i think you become an establishment in belmont belmont i missed the belmont to forty years ago but belmont has changed you know significantly i am concerned about having a package store in town a stand alone package store and i think your concept is not that you know i would have been concerned if you said no we're going to put a big sign outside liquor sold here ok that would have concerned me i am i am relieved by the fact that whenever we raise the concern such as the size of the display area tobacco and lottery restriction on transferability i mean they addressed every one of our concerns which which which tells me that we are working with somebody who is really concerned about about the community so i do think that's genuine you know i understand the small businesses and i tremendously support small businesses and i don't want to see them adversely affected at all but you know there is a big star market on the corner of of capello road and pleasant street thank you yet for you within half a mile from you there are three four small convenience stores that seem to be operating well and and and and and you know unaffected because each of you satisfy a different next you know if if if you w see it with the bakery with the pharmacy with the food service with the deli you know i see it as being you know more of another convenient department within the store you know and you know people are going to get their burgers they have the luxury of buying some cold beer you know for for example so i don't want to see other's business is affected in town but i think you're satisfying different niches that's what that's what i feel i don't see star market being a destination liquor store i will ask you one question though are we going to start getting flyers in the mail so so that said i'm a little less concerned ok thank you siri mr please give any comments or questions i do find i still have a question and it relates to ownership because the point has been made i don't think it's particularly relevant to the an investor of service which was mentioned earlier which is a private equity firm no i mean the problem with that personally or professionally with regard to each store you mentioned that each store was independently owned somehow see i think change is difficult but i don't think you can have progress without change change i mean i'm concerned with the small businesses as well but i don't see what you're offering and what you're proposing to be much different than what exists in the loading dock now and i think you pointed that out in your in your letter that if i quot and i don't want to i mean i borrow sami's language but you made the point that we see this new offering is augmenting what is already out there and i think that means that the loading dock already has an all liquor license you know over there and then the other idea was that it gets its address as an amenity to your longstanding customers and we've heard testimony here that said that people go to cambridge because cambridge has exactly what we're talking about here in the ideas that you those two and i'm actually favorable ok so before we say appears as though i'm outnumbered but before it's because it's a close call it really is i mean this has been a challenging markets a ship challenging decision for us i'm not going to restate my comments i do want to thank all of the folks that are here tonight and the way they conducted themselves and again you know different than the september nineteenth meeting this is a way we should have a debate in town there's always going to be differences and hope that we can join together and move forward and i appreciate mr kelly your professionalism and what you've done in terms of concessions you made thanks to duran as well and of course you as well and your representation you were well represented in this matter so with that i'm assuming that i have is a motion to o'connor one seven seven endicott street boston and i'm here representing c five k sports and cambridge side galleria and ok i appreciate the opportunity we've been planning this race for over a year where the type of people that put a lot of time into planning my company c five k organizes road races throughout the year so this what we do for a business cambridge side galleria of course the shopping mall down on the charles river they proposed organizing a half marathon race and got the full support of cambridge to the point where the city of cambridge is correct so as i mentioned we've been working on this for over a year and we attended many planning meetings with the city of cambridge and various other entities as you know the fitchburg commuter rail had been closed on sundays for the realtor maintenance correct a year ago it was closed and throughout our planning process was never mentioned that that was temporary  our plan was assuming that since it was on a sunday morning at eight there wouldn't be any commuter rails and commuter trains going by and at a very late hour it was presented to us that that's no longer the case that that train is running and there would be four trains going by during the race so after playing the race for a year we looked at the different options you know there would be a possibility to create a the most desirable and the reason why i'm here is for two reasons the majority of the people in this race has become a success we're on track to have over five thousand people the first year and who has always had a general i've always thought of belmont as of a quality town when i was in the finance business i had quite a few clients in the town but i never really put the proximity to boston together and until i started working on this course i think this is going to be a tremendous not the belmont needs this but i think the number of people that have addressed small businesses in the uniqueness of the community i think there are many people that might have moved here from new york to go to harvard or mit that haven't ventured out and made the connection that belmont is around the corner and with this course coming right in street to statler to chanting and getting a glimpse of leonard street i think you're going to see a group of young people in their twenty's and thirty's that are going to realize wow what the heck is this belmont center i need to come back here and maybe shop i've heard about craft beer cellar so i think that the first thing people usually think about with road races is oh my god i'm going to be blocked in races in ninety minutes is room and that's just not my opinion it's if you look at all other half marathon courses that have taken place usually the fastest runner  southbound side because the quickest route would be to be on the left hand side of the road so the people that live on vail road or pond would have access to go north on brighton street in and out involved and we asked the residents about that and i got well i guess there before you to get a sense i guess the communication will be key and notifying the neighbors and basically working with the police to if it's approved to make sure that we can manage travel what are the times but the runners are going to enter belmont at eight twenty five and leave at ten so about ninety minutes hoping to have it tonight yes ok can i give you some background about how we've approached sure you know we run through neighborhoods every every event that we put on it and  well you know encouraging people to be active is a good thing the two of you are active that we find that communicating with people is is the main concern if they hear bridge right brought to stay the sidewalk of our traffic plan we've already met with belmont police is to divide the underpass and use just the northbound side cone the the other side of the road and have maintained the access to belmont square throughout the race the race would be sufficiently spread out that anyone on channing road would be able to get out and get in their car and we we also have some significant great things about race we hired a medical director at the boston marathon we've connected with the belmont fire department they're going to chew e m t details  science from our public safety you know we started the process of the conversation early ok so the fire chiefs have assigned their staff i know chief who tells been involved you know all the requirements they wanted that have been addressed you know i you know i think it's a wonderful cause i appreciate the fact that you're donating five thousand dollars from this race to belmont support that's wonderful so i think as long as we notify the residents in the abiders as long as there is official and adequate police people watch our meetings right and this is publicly announced yes people have heard about it so so i would suggest why don't we make a decision at our next meeting to see if we here you know you have five thousand i understand belmont residents running through the town this isn't the down sharpton road race where you get three hundred belmont resident back three four hundred runners i think it would be very easy thousand runners and that and a town like belmont that's twenty percent of our population that's twenty percent of our population so i think we need some you know i think people need to know before they wake up one morning and get shocked or they absolutely will now although i think to put it off for one meeting which think it's in they put the also of the the manager of the boston marathon is this is that right the medical director at the marathon is the medical director for this race and we've already contracted with that on the othe know no i think the point is this should have come before us a month ago i think before we wanted to come before you we needed number one to make sure if it could be logistically done what the requirements of the police and fire were and if they could have been because he wouldn't be here before you if the police or fire didn't sign off on it because we don't bring things before us we've gone through a process to vet with of public safety officials that there's a plan in place in order to support us i think that's a fair five thousand dollar contribution to belmont support and then move receive feedback subsequent to the race in terms of how this is to end notification of all residents by leave within in the town so bit ahead i do apologise with the late hour the reason i am here is to make sure that you gentlemen will vote to sign the warrant for the presidential actually the states like which is going to be held a little bit for a long awaited early voting in massachusetts is basically no excuse absentee voting i have a piece in the newspaper it's in the belmont tony and i put it on the local i have it on the town's website i have it on my website i'm hanging out with a piece of paper everywhere i go i was at the high school today registering kids to vote so everywhere we could see you are blanketing the world early voting is going to hopefully increase thank you voter participation although in belmont that's going to be a bit of a challenge we have been eighty five percent five percent what early voting does that allows it to spread the actual vote over a period of exactly weeks business week belmont will be participating pretty heavily in early voting i'm really kind of committed to it the law only says we're monday and friday that we will be open from eight to five tuesday wednesday thursday will be open for early from the morning until eight p m twelve hours each day and then on saturday the twenty ninth will be open from nine to four and then at the town hall which will put strange on other activities that are happening at town hall and we've been working we've gone through a coordination meeting to try to make sure that the traffic in the parking and i know we're fighting for folks will be available and  d the regular kind of business people hand up opposite times or watch for the visitors the so for your information we're closing one half of the parking lot to accommodate really voters  done but we clearly during extended hours will have half the lot to begin with dedicated to early voter voters we may end up closing all the parties in the entire complex if it's becomes polls right now once you have voted early you technically cannot go to the polls and cast a vote and you cannot write an absentee ballots or early voting is the same as boils away and then just just as a matter of information who made who makes this decision in part of the game the other part of course is for people who are traveling and will be in town on election day or able to go to the polls as well as people might have a medical issue preventing them to go to the polls have a religious issue that  cannibalize a little bit of that we're hoping that we don't have to we also have about three hundred ex pats citizens and millet members of the military who we manage and they vote under the federal voting act on by email so you want ever see them but their numbers will be added into the belmont totals so it's it's kind of a complex little adventure down there you know thank you for all the wonderful work for next year this is the only time we're going to be able to make an announcement like this or will you be able to  e stuff so people want to go to the town's website there are couple big bullets we put up front of full of the vote but to give people information and they can register a vote online now they don't have to come in to office do it by paper it will come through my office but  aware about what the bylaws are and what their requirements in terms of making sure they do not have a listen connections to either side and hopefully that will address that issue in part but we don't have to vote