Liquor Store Owners Ask City Commission For Sunday Sales
By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor
During the March 11th meeting of the City of Trenton Board of Commissioners, the elected officials returned again to the request from local liquor store owners to allow Sunday liquor sales.
First, the commission approved SPLOST expenditure amounting to $10,850.00 (not including freight costs) for the emergency replacement of a pump at the city’s sewer plant. Dewayne Moore (sewer department manager) said of the pump’s motor, “We’ve had it rebuilt several times and it’s basically got beyond the point where it can be rebuilt.”
Moore further explained that seals and some other parts can be replaced multiple times, but a casing is past the point of repair. He noted that this pump has run 24/7, 365 days a year since 1990.
The commission also approved the use of SPLOST to replace the current fabric-covered chairs in the City Hall meeting room with hardback chairs. The cheapest bid (approved by the commission) totaled $2,674.50 for 50 chairs. Ansel Smith (assistant fire chief and building inspector) and Alex Case (mayor) said that these new chairs will be easier to clean and, not having armrests, they will be less restrictive for police officers wearing belts and gear.
The commission then discussed a request from the two liquor store owners about allowing Sunday sales. Sam Patel (of Trenton Liquors) was unable to attend, but Vic Barot (of Vic’s Wine and Spirits) joined part way through the meeting.
Case noted that Patel and Barot are working together on this and they are working on a formal request. They would like to be able to sell liquor after noon on Sundays (the same as beer and wine sales), and they would like a moratorium on liquor stores in the city.
Case explained that the attorney is working on updating the ordinances to limit the number of liquor stores in the city to two.
Monda Wooten (street commissioner) was not present, Mike Norris (police commissioner) noted that he had spoken with the owners, and Lucretia Houts (fire and utility commissioner) and Terry Powell (parks and animal control commissioner) had no comments or questions.
Barot said, “[Patel’s] business as well as mine, we are going to be in the red for the next year or so. We just request the commission to take that into consideration and extend the moratorium.”
He added that there is customer demand (particularly from tourists) for liquor sales on Sundays, and in 2023, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve both fell on Sundays. “Those two are the biggest days for liquor stores, and we just lost all that business to Tennessee.”
During his report, Norris noted that while he’s been dealing with health issues, Steve Beaudoin (police chief) kept him updated. “While I was gone, I know the city was in good hands.”
Case read the police report. In February, the Trenton Police Department answered 247 calls for service, conducted 1,450 business checks, answered one animal complaint, responded to eight domestic disturbance calls, four trespassing calls, 18 suspicious activity calls, and worked 11 traffic crashes. From 47 traffic stops, 61 citations were issued.
Houts reported that the Trenton Fire Department answered 104 calls in February, 14 of which were fire related and 47 of which were canceled en route.
Case discussed the new accounting system that the city has moved to and the difficult process of data conversion. Noting that the city officials like to see the breakdown of certain revenues such as malt beverage, wine, and distilled spirit sales, Case said this new system will help with accessing that data.
During the monthly financials, Case asked Moore about an ARPA-funded project at the sewer plant. Moore said the plant is waiting for the bar screen to come in, but the project is a couple weeks ahead of schedule. Case said, “We’ve been fighting it for no telling how long with a lot of our debris that gets in the sewer and gets to these pumps we’re talking about that tears them up.”
During her report, Mindy Haworth (library branch manager) noted a resource available through the Dade County Public Library: instructional handbooks, videos, and practice tests for standard, CDL, and motorcycle licenses. She said, “All you have to do is go to our website, chrl.org, scroll to the bottom of the page, and you’ll see a little tab that says ‘driving tests,’ and you can log in.”
Haworth reported that the library has recently received a lot of calls about printing services. She said, “The library is a great place to get inexpensive access to a commercial printer or copier.” Regular letter and legal size copies and prints are $0.25 per black and white page or $0.50 per color page. Large prints range from $12.00 (for 16 by 20 inches) to $20.00 (for 24 by 36 inches).
Haworth highlighted a number of upcoming events at the library, such as the Dade County Historical Society’s Genealogy Workshop on March 28th from 5 to 7 p.m. in the history room. Members of the historical society will be available to help people dive into family history through Ancestry.com and other resources.
Another event is the second Wise Wives Legal Workshop with local attorney John Huisman. Haworth reported that the first workshop drew a large crowd, and Huisman wanted to offer an evening slot with the same information. The free event will be April 2 at 6 p.m. (See the December 6th, 2023 issue of the Sentinel for a complete article about the workshop.)
Haworth also noted a scam workshop that the Bank of Dade and Dade County Sheriff’s Office are co-hosting. Seth Houts of the Bank of Dade will be at the library at 10:30 a.m. to discuss the most common types of scams that the bank is currently seeing and how to avoid them.
Case added, “You’d be surprised the 911 calls we get about [scams].” Haworth said, “The best defense is an offense.”
Sandy White (CEO and president of the Alliance for Dade) mentioned the McLemore expansion, and Case said, “There’s 63 lots of that McLemore subdivision that’s on the southwest corner that’s in Dade County…We’ve been working with them quite a bit, Dade and Walker 911.”
White and Case noted a pancake breakfast that Dade County Fire Station One is hosting on April 13th as a fundraiser for local firefighter Cody Doyle and his family. Case said, “He’s fighting head and neck cancer. He’s a young man, great family, great guy…He’s doing real well.” For $10.00 per person, come enjoy all you can eat pancakes and drinks at the fire station, 51 South Industrial Boulevard, Trenton from 8 to 11 a.m.
Case added that the Trenton Fire Department and Cherokee County Fire Department (where Doyle works full time) are both selling t-shirts to raise funds for the family.
During Citizens Participation, Ryan Faircloth asked about updates on the formation of the Downtown Development Authority, to which Case said they are waiting on the attorney to find out about funding/costs.
