June 30, 2009
By SETH AUGENSTEIN
SPARTA -- The petition of three local liquor stores continues its back-and-forth with the township.
The petition -- with nearly 700 signatures of citizens opposing the possible creation of two new liquor licenses -- was rejected by the township clerk last week for not being notarized.
However, the owners of the township's three liquor stores quickly got the notary seals on the documents and resubmitted the signatures challenging the ordinance.
Township Clerk Mary Coe said Monday she had received all of the petition pages, and would certify the petition by the time of the next regular council meeting on July 14.
The ordinance to create the new liquor licenses kicked off controversy in Sparta over the last two months. The ordinance, passed May 12 by a vote of 3-2, was prompted by a request from the Stop and Shop corporation. The company owns the single supermarket in town, but is looking to build a significantly bigger store down the road, near state Route 15.
At that May meeting, the public lobbied the council for two hours, expressing its anger about the possible impact the two new distribution licenses could have on the three existing stores in town, the Liquor Factory, Burke's Wine and Liquor and White Deer Liquor. They argued the stores, operating under "broad" consumption licenses, would be affected by additional distribution licenses, and more competition. An attorney for Stop and Shop disagreed, saying the township was due to add the first new liquor license in roughly 60 years. The council agreed, saying the added revenue and commerce would be a boon to the town.
Bill Tobin, the owner of the Liquor Factory, said the stores were interested in bringing the decision about the licenses to the people's direct vote, preferably during November's general election.
"We wanted the town to decide -- not the four or five people up there (on the podium)," Tobin said Saturday.
The stores needed 578 signatures to take the issue to the voters. They collected 683, according to Coe.
The liquor store petition is the seventh Sparta petition in the last year and a half. The first, in December 2007, challenged the creation of a townwide garbage utility. The resulting March 2008 referendum brought a decisive approval to the utility from Sparta voters. The three councilmen in favor of the garbage service also were the subject of recalls last year, and two separate ordinances were challenged by petitioners. The recalls failed to get enough signatures to submit to the clerk, and the ordinance petitions -- one to create an ordinance, the other opposing a salary ordinance -- failed to bring about referenda in 2008.
Jesse Wolosky was one of the organizers for most of the Sparta petitions -- although he was not involved in the liquor petition. But he said the recall and petition process was empowering to the public.
"Maybe it's the wave of the future," Wolosky said. "The governing body has to start listening to the people."
