The City of Brownwood and the Brownwood Independent School District each moved forward this week in filing protests with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) regarding the renewal of the alcohol sales permit at Food Plaza #9 located at 2800 Southside.
Currently, the city 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 hearing last year in court. The permit comes up for renewal in July of 2010 and both the city and BISD are seeking to stop the renewal stating that the permit should not have been issued in the first place.
Brownwood ISD Superintendent Reece Blincoe said that he feels that Food Plaza was awarded the permit because Justice of the Peace Precinct 4 Jim Cavanaugh, who heard the case, did not have an understanding of the school property and that classes are conducted at the Accelerated High School.
“We felt like there was a wrong judgment made saying that we don’t have a school here,” Blincoe said at Monday night’s BISD Board of Trustees meeting.
The BISD Board of Trustees unanimously agreed to file a protest against the permit’s renewal.
The Brownwood City Council also voted to file a protest with the TABC against the permit’s renewal, but with a split council vote causing Mayor Stephen Haynes to break the tie. Haynes voted in favor of filing the protest.
“I believe BISD has a vested interest,” Haynes said. “If we don’t join in the protest to stop the renewal of their liquor license, we would be severely handicapping the district.”
Both the city and the school district have previously said that they were not aware of last year’s appeal hearing for the liquor license and neither party was present before the judge to make their case.
Steve Fryar, whose company owns Food Plaza, said that he has worked hard to get the alcohol sales permit for that store.
“I spent 7 months working with TABC in Austin to determine how to legally obtain the license,” Fryar said.
Fryar also said that last year, County Judge Ray West was appointed to hold an administrative hearing concerning the store’s license. Judge West recused himself and appointed Judge Jim Cavanaugh to hear the case.
“The County Judges Guide from TABC stated that the two entities to have notice served were the county by way of the County Sheriff and the city by way of the Chief of Police,” Fryar said. “Both the Sheriff and Chief were served notice and knew of the administrative hearing that was held last July.”
Fryar told the BISD Board of Trustees Monday night that the reason he sought the permit in the first place was to compete in sales with another convenience store which is allowed to sell alcohol due to being grandfathered under the previous rules.
TABC sent officials to Brownwood recently to gather their own information about the Accelerated High School and the Food Plaza. The officials also took their own measurements of the properties to determine if it falls outside of the 300 feet requirement.
A TABC hearing will be held in the coming weeks to determine if Food Plaza #9 will keep its liquor license based on the information gathered during their visit and the protests filed by the city and school district.
For more background information, see our previous stories on this topic from last fall by clicking the following:
