A Brown County Court denied a motion filed by the Brownwood Independent School District requesting a rehearing regarding the renewal of the alcohol sales permit for the Food Plaza convenient store located at 2800 Southside Drive.
A hearing held on August 19th by appointed judge and County Commissioner Larry Traweek ruled that the store could continue to sell alcohol after both the City of Brownwood and Brownwood ISD filed protests with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Traweek said that he based his ruling off of a previous court’s decision regarding the same issue over a year ago. BISD Superintendent Dr. Reece Blincoe said that the latest hearing responded to the city’s protest but not the school district’s.
School officials said that the district filed the request for a rehearing in hopes that a new ruling could be made directly through the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, but their request for rehearing was denied by Traweek
Currently, the city of Brownwood has an ordinance prohibiting the sale of alcohol at a business that is within 300 feet of a public school. The Brownwood Independent School District property which houses the administrative offices and the Brownwood Accelerated High School is located at 2707 Southside which is catty-corner to this Food Plaza location.
The Food Plaza location secured an alcoholic sales permit from the TABC after winning a protest hearing last year in court. Representatives of the city of Brownwood did not attend this initial hearing last year because they said that they never received notice of the hearing. The original judge in the case said that notice was given to the city through the chief of police.
