The Fall River Licensing Board convened on Wednesday, January 19th, with all members present. The meeting addressed several licensing requests, including one-day permits, class two licenses, a wholesale license, and a new alcohol commercial license. Key approvals included one-day liquor licenses for Our Lady of Purgatory's annual fundraiser on February 5th and for the Police Athletic League's Southern New England Golden Gloves boxing events on January 29th, February 5th, and February 12th. The board also approved the renewal of a Class Two license for 21st Century Motors Ltd. and a wholesale license for Exported LLC. A significant portion of the meeting was dedicated to the application for a new alcohol commercial license for July Friends Lounge Inc. d/b/a Cornerstone Lounge. The applicant, Manuel Da Silva, represented by attorney Arthur Frank, provided an update on securing off-street parking. However, the application faced strong opposition from residents, including Thomas Corey and Joseph Marks, and a representative from the Flink Neighborhood Association, who cited historical problems with bars at that location, including noise, public intoxication, and parking issues. The police department had also recommended denial. The board decided to continue this item to the February 16th meeting, requesting a definitive parking plan, occupancy numbers from the building inspector, and a resolution with the police department's denial, noting it would be the final continuance. Other actions included denying a Class Two license for Choice Auto Sales due to police recommendation and tabling a Class Two license for Hogwash at the applicant's request. An alteration of premises for The Tipsy Toboggan to expand its patio was approved. The transfer of a beer and wine package store license for Sunny Hill Mini Mart was continued to the next meeting. Finally, the minutes from the November 30th, 2021 meeting were approved.
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Public Safety
Public / Other
i'd like to i'd like to call you out of the meeting of the former licensing board today is wednesday january 19th for the record all members of the board are present when you have your matters called please come down to the table here in the front of the room and state your name and address pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video reporting of this public meeting or may transmit the
0:21meeting through any media attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible first item on the agenda one day i'm sorry public input is there anyone here that would like to address the board on any matter at all you haven't received any written notices okay
0:46one day permits our lady of purgatory 300 northeastern avenue matt thomas
1:00uh good evening attorney salino and members of the board thank you for meeting with me this evening i'm here my name is matthew thomas my address is 183 palmer street new bedford massachusetts i'm here in my capacity tonight as a parishioner of our lady of purgatory church the lady of purgatory is the marinette catholic church in new bedford similar to saint anthony of the desert here in fall river on february 5th
1:24we'll be holding our annual fundraiser the saint marin huffle at st anthony's and we're requesting a one-day liquor license uh from six in the uh six o'clock in the evening on saturday the fifth to midnight we anticipate about 250 to 300 attendees we will be having a uh police detail and all the proceeds of the fundraiser will go towards the church so this being held at the fall river location
1:54but benefiting the new difference right okay yes it's at 300 north eastern avenue okay is this a full liquor license yes please okay from six to midnight right okay and of course we invite you all to saturday evening yeah we invite you all to join in for some lebanese food music food uh and refreshments and dancing it's a very nice haul this is great we've had something there for our one of
2:24our clubs and monsignor root comes in monsignor is very good about letting us use it um and we do appreciate that it is any questions from the members of the board i have no questions is there anyone any uh anyone else here in favor has anyone opposed is there a motion i'll make a motion to approve the one day permit for february 5th 2022.
2:49is the motion made is that motion seconded motion made and seconded anyone else in favor anyone opposed all in favor all right thank you for your time thank you pal 31 franklin street charles j cullen in january 29th uh february 5th february 12th for the record please charles cullen president police athletic league fall river 31 franklin street fall river and this again this is an annual event
3:26correct correct 59th annual southern new england golden globes yes and this are the actual all dates or is one of snow date i know you usually put in a snotty the only difference with the snow date requested this year if it could be uh classifiers to be determined if needed because we would have to uh see which day and then the boxing commission would have to approve a date okay and so
3:57if that were to happen that one of these days was a snow day you would let kerry know immediately yes all right um and that of course they have their own police it's 6 to 10 p.m there's saturday nights there's two weeks between correct there's three and it's all alcohol okay are there any questions for the members of the board no no questions this is an annual thing is there anyone else in favor is there
4:27anyone opposed is there a motion i'll make a motion that we approve the the dates january 29 2022 february 5th 2022 february 12 2022 and these are all one day permits is there a second all second the motion made and seconded to approve anyone else in favor anyone opposed all in favor hi thank you thank you class two licenses choice auto sales 851 globe street
5:13just get your name and address for the record please alicia jolie uh 19 warren of apartment 2 war in rhode island 0285 could you speak up a little bit to make sure everything's picked up okay and you're looking for a 15 car license correct correct at 851 globe is choice auto sales is that a um a corporation an llc or just a business name just a business name have you filed a dba certificate yes
5:54okay so this was on before last month so now the application is now on your name correct so you've refiled that we don't have a police report so we have oh yes so um it was actually recommended that it be denied um reason being that we had actually previously discussed this with mr hayes it's already an existing business and mr hayes was informed why it was denied last time and what needed to be corrected in order
6:27for it to be approved so when i presented that to the chief he didn't feel comfortable having it applied under someone else's name since it's already being owned by mr hayes okay okay so we have the recommendation from the police that will be denied and ordinarily the board follows the recommendation of the police because they are the ones that enforce the provisions of the license
6:50so i would recommend that if you are still interested in pursuing that you really need to work with the police to find out what the problem is and get the problem corrected okay okay so there's a motion is there um anyone else in favor anyone opposed you're in favor um anyone opposed any questions no questions okay is there a motion to make a motion to approve it no pending the police report
7:22they said to deny it the police want to deny it okay okay make a motion to deny this request the motion made to deny is there a second i'll second motion made to deny which has been seconded anyone else in favor anyone opposed all in favor thank you thank you 21st century motors ltd 101 broadway damon canyon
7:59hello all right state your name and address for the record please damon gagnon 431 chestnut street bristol rhode island okay so gary's just informed me that this is a license that did not get filed timely for the renewal in november so it's a matter of just renewing the license so you can operate again okay no changes no change it's just that it wasn't filed right okay any questions yeah
8:27any questions no questions no is there anyone else here in favor anyone opposed is there a motion i'll make a motion to approve the renewal of this license the motion made to approve the renewal anyone else in favor anyone opposed i'm all in favor all right thank you thank you export exported llc 56 north main street and a makari victorious acre so i'm not saying that right i'm sorry okay three
9:04hello hi could you state your name
9:21yes um 56 north main street in fall river okay so this is obviously um a wholesale license yes yes and you're you are application has been approved by the police department okay so this is i'd like to know how many of these export places there are in that building no i mean 56 north main yeah always yeah okay are there any questions from the members of the board i have no questions
9:55okay is there anyone else in favor is there anyone opposed is there a motion i'll make a motion to approve the wholesale license the motion made to approve is there a second second motion made to approve which is seconded so anyone else in favor anyone opposed all in favor say thank you good luck hogwarts 2065 north main street jose rosa at the request of the applicant they asked that to be tabled
10:31the motion of the table would be in order i'll make a motion to obtain this request is it going to be the table till next month there's a motion made to table is there a second second motion made to table anyone else in favor anyone opposed all in favor aye new alcohol common visual license july friends lounge inc dva cornerstone lounge 622 east main street manual good evening mr chairman members of the
11:11board madam clerk for the record my name is arthur frank i'm a lawyer with an address of 209 bedford street fall river massachusetts i'm here on behalf of july friends lounge to my right is mr da silva i believe elena depina is here too as well yeah just sick okay the last time we were here in december this board had asked me to see if mr the silver could obtain some parking off street parking
11:44i can report to you and i have given you a copy mr chairman that the owner of the property the vacant property across the street susan petter has agreed to rent mr de silva the lot uh solely for his customers in fact i think he's already given her a deposit or a down payment uh as far as the number of cars on that lot i did tell him to alert his engineer to
12:10see what we could come up with it's my understanding that any um occupancy numbers for the building are probably going to be set by mr hathaway and the fire marshal and that they need probably to get in there to figure out what what the the maximum occupancy could be and then we could work backwards and see how many cars he can get across the street he's anticipating just some brief
12:36conversations with his engineer uh he's thinking 30 to 36 cars on that lot okay which may be ambitious i don't know uh but i as i suggested to the chair uh if you want us to come back with a detailed drawing we'll get one so that building is not used as a garage right no it's not an operational lot of data no no it's vacant i don't know who has
13:01been parking their cars there but um so as you're aware the ordinance um the zoning ordinance says that you have to have one parking space for every four seats correct so what you're saying is that you have to determine what the occupancy of the building is which will then determine how many spots how many spots you need correct someone has to have to map out that how many spaces you can get out of that law
13:27that's correct for instance if if mr hathaway uh determines that the maximum occupancy is 100 people for the restaurant i know i have to get 25 parking spaces across the street i don't even think that would be a problem uh obviously if he says your maximum is 130 but all i can fit are 25 parking spaces then we'll have to reduce the maximum occupancy of the building right or apply
13:52for a special or get the special permit from the zba or get more spots somewhere else right okay so and i see that this agreement obviously was just done yesterday so you don't have any of those plans yet no we we he he talked to his engineer but he couldn't get out there today he said um by the square feet and that place had a 6 000 square footage you do is the management it's a each
14:19thousand square foot if for each two thousand uh if the restaurants are three thousand square foot that means like a thirty parking space because the 80 000 square foot it belongs like a seven cars yeah okay all right so you would be willing to get a plan done can you get a plan done yes okay okay i just i just want to you know just so you know um the board had requested the police to
14:50do some research and she has a detective bonus has done her research and i just want her to report what what i've seen it yeah i've seen it do you want did your client know what it said i think he he uh he and i discussed it this afternoon uh obviously i think the the more notable items would probably be the traffic offenses because i think some of that other stuff is civil in
15:17nature and really outside of the bounds of this board or or anyone else but if you look a lot of those those speeding tickets i think they're at least 10 or 12 years old um i don't know that they're indicative of being able to competently run a restaurant we you know is he does have a restaurant in in brockton uh obviously that was not an impediment to him getting a license in brockton although i
15:43told him this is fall river it's not brockton i think i mean at this point i'm more concerned with the parking yeah and of verification i mean i think this is great that you have something you know that you've come to some kind of terms with her i would have hoped to have seen some kind of potential lease that would be signed upon if the license were approved um is that
16:07how is it a month to month basis or did was that not determined rent yeah how are you going to rent it it's a monthly but i already paid the full year okay because i want to take this thing out of my way i talked to her say like i don't mind because they only picked it up basically they've been concerned about parking lot if you accept this they she doesn't want to go all the time
16:32because she get they got family issue there has been been a hospital and she go back and forth all the time yeah we were lucky just to get that i thought she don't want to call me i talked to i said like i get your money the whole year and the promise i'm probably we need the money then just give me a permission they're not gonna do anything then back the shop
16:54they have a storage they they just lock it again nothing's there she told me i can't use the bag so i think we're on the same page and you know what the police report says yeah it is a recommendation of the police so the issue still remains with the parking that's not determined what exactly can be done with the parking so we need to know that but you also have to have the building inspector
17:19needs to go in there right to come up with the numbers of what the actual occupancy is um and then there's i think a business decision has to be made by mr silva based on what the occupancy is whether he wants to go for a variant i mean a special permit would be correct it's a special permit by the code yeah wave on the pocket so that's all well and good and i think
17:40we've made progress and i think that's great but if you look out in the audience there are a lot of the same people that were here before and i just want to ask them if anyone has anything to say they'd like to address the board at this time mr chairman i have a petition to uh asking you to deny the license okay if you just state your name and address for the record please uh thomas
18:06corey three to nine staff at road floor of a massachusetts this will be entered as part of the record um signed there's six pages of people in opposition so that'll be part of our record so anyone else that wants to speak okay could you state your name and address and wrap it for the record can you explain to me where the parking would actually be in that lot well i mean it's directly
18:40across the street and there's it looks like it used to be a gas station or something a service station of some type so i imagine it would be around the perimeter correct in area i don't know no let me know in the front and the fence because the whole pocket off of the garage so around the side and the front of the building yeah okay so note right now my building for the
19:05223 220 221 223 is a that they used to call it unites auto services and the shield will need to rent me that place so none of the fenced in area would be used as farmers the whole thing the whole thing would be just exactly okay yeah because i think that makes it all belong to her i believe it does but that property above my property and we have dealt with
19:42that building that you're trying to open for many many years and it never ends well so i i really would i would like to deny this because i have to live there and if if there's a bar there that closes at 2 am it never ends well it never ends well and there have been many many businesses in there doing the same thing that you're trying to do and it never ends well fine all i
20:19understand it was never when men think they have a bar next to the door it's not because things happened before that means they're going to be the same i'm not saying that it's you but there has been a bar on that corner on the opposite corner and across the street for many years and we have put up with that for many years and since that bar has closed the neighborhood has been so much
20:46quieter than it ever has been and it has been a few years that that bar has been closed and i love it i'm not gonna lie i like that it's been closed i don't care that there are people living in that building but to open again as a bar it's not a bar it's a family restaurant so it's actually going to be pressed from the restaurant the body two things difference but it's gonna close it too
21:11one or two ways i don't say close the two they depend on them i don't think
21:23there was a potential that it could close at one or two there's a that's what i said like only thing that is a family restaurant family restaurant that means they're gonna because the place had a problem before you're gonna have a problem right now because everybody wanted everybody growing up in the mentality is a total difference and i'm sure that i think just you have to keep in mind
21:48the license the the um the depth of the license the hours are the hours nothing says that the board has to approve it for those hours if it's a true family restaurant there should be no problem with saying that the license ends at 11 o'clock or 10 o'clock i mean obviously the applicant has to agree or the board can just impose it that's that's one of the prerogatives but i think this gentleman said from the
22:14beginning that it was not going to be a bar or a lounge type thing it was going to be a restaurant that's what you have in brockton as well correct i had that conversation with mr hathaway mr chairman and he was under the he he wasn't even given correct information and i reminded him that this is a local business district and a restaurant is in allowed use as a matter of right
22:37subject to the parking provisions of one one spot for every four seats uh if it were if he wanted to open a lounge he'd have to go to the zba and get a special permit but i think one of the problems is the name it's july friends lounge no that mean it because i already have i don't want to create the pain i'm just saying the name is deceptive because if it's a restaurant
23:02and it says lounge people think of drinking going in having a drink listening to music whatever the case may be so that that causes some concern yeah but i think you know by saying it's i mean i think you need to consider whether shorter hours you know whether you're going to look to two o'clock if it's a restaurant most restaurants especially now after coving restaurants are closing at eight o'clock
23:27a lot of the established restaurants in forever are closed at eight or nine o'clock it's over under my point where they can give me a chance to look at it for neighbors here whatever's going on now nothing's going to be problem out there and shut me down shut me down before i open it because they've been thinking whatever happened before it can't happen right now and i think it's a natural
23:55both sides of the argument have to remember the license can be granted the license could be taken away at any time if there's a problem the board has absolute discretion and control of that the license is not a right it's a privilege and if the privilege is abused the license is taken away i've been here a long time i'm not sure how much longer i'm going to be here but
24:19i can tell you in the time i've been here we've revoked probably 10 to 15 licenses because people have abused the license so we're not gun shy when it comes to that if there's a problem and i understand what mr silva is saying he's being judged before he comes here well i think we got off on a bad foot and i think you have to admit that um it wasn't very pleasant the meeting
24:42the site visit was was not very nice so that didn't give a good impression to the neighbors either but right now i think the thing is accord what attorney frank has said they need to get something from building of what the occupancy is and they need to get a definitive plan of the pocket so there's no guessing so that neighbors can see what it is and you still have the issue of
25:07the denial by the police that you need to work out speak to detective monas to see if there's any ground there where that can be done so if you are willing i would think we should go along with attorney frank and continue until those all that information is in i know you probably don't want to hear that but if it were to go forward tonight i don't think you'd be happy with the answer
25:29so it's just what it is this is the way it goes so and you might want to think about maybe not using the name lounge maybe you can file a dda certificate yeah you should be they can be amended yeah they can be one of their own restaurants okay i'm sorry sir yeah your name and address for the record seventeen global streets the name is joseph marks i live on a neighborhood
25:54for about 15 years where i live right now 38 years i lived right next from that place used to be a ballroom nice was a polish but beautiful then it went into a the lounge at the beginning was never any problem after that i worked in canton mass i could not sleep to get up at 4 30 in the morning to go to work every day with three kids i had
26:22i bought a i left there i went to the 17 wilbur street we could hear the noise at 17 wilbur street i could i had to pick up the bottles they used to pull out of that bar and leave it in my wall and not just that the problem is the problem they come out to smoke and a lot of noise and when they go to their cars they drunk the riven the
26:50engines the spin tires when they leave they loud fights i mean we i've seen it all and like i said i'm not here to lie i have nothing against this man i have nothing against the building the business the apartment but i have about the what's been done over here and i uh since i live in their neighborhood was three businesses over there the only one that was okay with when i moved into 210
27:18east main with an old bar a polish bat it was like a church 8 39 o'clock it was closed everybody went home when they went to the lounge was big trouble okay i bought the house at 17 wilbur street i was nailing sheetrock at 9 20 9 30. somebody called the cops on me i went home i could not sleep with the noise coming out of that bar drums and music and
27:47guitars and my house i lived at 210 east main on the third floor and it was a building i think it's owned now by that same uh place but it used to be an upholstery shop my house my apartment is to shake and i'm not here to lie and i don't want to put this man in jeopardy with his business or what he's going to buy but the business is good
28:15it's half them again they used to pop across the street on the gas station too but they also used to come and park everywhere on the neighborhood because they used to block my driveway on seventeen wilbur street that i had to call the cops to pull the cars out so i could go to work on the church on the uh 11 o'clock at night okay all right i think again going back to the nature of what
28:40he's saying here tonight representing that's going to be a restaurant people shouldn't be drunk when they're going to a restaurant you know maybe have a glass of wine you have a cocktail whatever but you wouldn't be going there just to drink so hopefully those problems would not exist i mean we would hope we would think that wouldn't be the case but we don't know and although it's the license would be
29:03his your daughter's the manager right the proposed manager uh it's her responsibility to make sure people aren't drinking to excess but the you know you can't always control that either things happen people are going to do what they're going to do so i guess unless there's anything else anyone wants to add yes your name and address for the record please
29:32the organization the flink neighborhood association and i just want to come here and support that neighborhood nobody better than me in this board knows when one location has a reputation doesn't matter how many chances we give is is he could have the most nice business the location it's the reputation that's what gives the reputation this board worked um with one of my business that we finally got a shot
30:09though again i this board helped with any way not to have those people drinking and making noise outside this board had worked with them and give them a chance to sell foods as long as you sell foods you're good to go they came in front of the sport three times just with that license and what i think is the location the location people keep coming because they remember the location and the problems come back
30:44and the time the the problems come back i'm all for business i i want more the more business the better but some business really hurt more the neighborhood that helps the neighborhood and i cannot see a restaurant open until two o'clock in the morning when everybody else is closest at eight and then right now they probably work on drive troops because they don't even have people to work on the right
31:15a lot of a lot of restaurants so what i want to be on the record is that um i would like to support to uh to deny thinking um what what this will the problem this will become because we know everybody had good intentions but never works the way we want to and this location is just just like a couple of locations i have on my neighborhood that doesn't matter
31:42what goes in there as long as it's it's a liquor license we want to have the same problem columbus street the perfect example columbus street now the corner of colombia and salt mead how many problems we had on that restaurant over there and apparently now it's a beautiful dentist office there beautiful place so it's it's other i understand the place it's something needs to be rented but
32:10it's a lot of business out there that can do it better and fit the banner and the neighborhood we in our neighborhood we are like cats afraid of water we had the gold mine which is the last name of that place the one before that was owned by two ladies from morocco from rhode island trouble and we had the one where asia one was it was a nightclub it was bad news there
32:41bad loser with that that was on salt main street and they used to bother us a lot because that's where the cars come by yeah then we had the one on the corner of the globe and sup main down uh uh by the uh the fish market which is closed the the the one on asia one upstairs it's closed and finally we went into a piece i mean into a nice neighborhood it was so bad
33:09you tried to sell your house and forget it you know nobody even wanted to buy the house okay well i think we at this juncture i think the board doesn't have everything it needs and so um i think probably the motion to continue it and that this be the last time this be the last continuance that you get everything in and and it has to be in i'm going to say
33:34at least a week before the meeting it can't be brought in tonight and handed i'll speak to mr hathaway tomorrow about um scheduling an appointment so okay and the questions comments from the board no okay so i would say a motion to continue yeah i'll make a motion to continue this until next month february 15th february 16th and how many days prior to time okay is the motion made second on motion
34:05made to continue to february 16th second did anyone else in favor anyone opposed all in favor hi thank you thank you alteration of premises the tipsy toboggan 75 fairy street cal poly's here hello hi i'm carl palacio 52 jerome street in berkeley okay and what are you looking to do um i am back again to approve the alteration of premises at the tipsy toboggan to increase the patio to include the
34:41covet-approved spacing okay just explain why you're back again oh um i foolishly mailed my thing with regular mail and did not receive a green slip so kerry has now taught us how important the green slip is
35:07all right any questions no he's rushing this summer but which is good a patio is it closed in or open no open open yeah it's the one that we've had it's set up still with the cement blocks and everything we just we want to freshen it up and get it ready for the summer oh okay is there um are there any questions for the members of the board no questions anyone else here in favor
35:30and you want to pause is there a motion make a motion to approve the alteration of the premises okay motion made is there a second all second motion made and seconded to approve anyone else in favor anyone opposed all in favor all right thank you so much yes
35:58thank you next item is a transfer of beer and wine package to a license path of course sunny hill mini mart 26 32 south main street for our dip patel and they've asked that that be continued to the february 16th meeting is there a motion to make a motion to continue this item to the february 16th meeting there's a motion made is there a second well second to continue anyone else in favor anyone
36:29opposed all in favor hi all right okay next item whole new business approval sign november 30th 2021 minutes they have a motion to approve make a motion to approve the minutes of november 30th 2021. there's a motion made and seconded i'm sorry is there a second promotion made and seconded to approve anyone else in favor anyone opposed all in favor
37:11okay okay anything else to come before the board unless the office if you have anything to say no yeah all right nothing else to come before the board is our motion to adjourn make a motion to adjourn is there a second i'll settle motion made to return seconded anyone else in favor anyone opposed all in favor