Without much ado, the Trenton City Commission voted Monday night to issue its first malt beverage serving permit. An application by the town’s Pizza Hut restaurant was approved unanimously at the commission’ s regular June meeting.
A note of caution came from Police Commissioner Sandra Gray. “Has it been measured?” she said. “Is it far enough away from the church?”
It had and it was, City Clerk Lucretia Houts assured her. Pizza Hut had paid all fees, filled out all paperwork and satisfied all requirements, said Ms. Houts. It only remained for individual servers to be individually fingerprinted and background-checked, a process that will be ongoing as staffers come and go – but Ms. Houts offered commissioners the option of waiting to vote until the current crop had been checked out.
They declined, and thus nearly a year of bitter contention ended in a quiet chorus of yeses.
Trenton’s ordinance permitting wine and beer by the drink, first introduced last August, met with muscular opposition from church congregations, and attendance at city commission meetings swelled to standing room only while “wets” and “dries” duked it out in the public forum.
When the matter finally came to a vote at the end of the year, Mayor Barton Harris broke the commission’s two/two tie with his yes vote – but this crescendo lapsed into anticlimax as no restaurateur stepped up to serve, as it were. Later, the commission compromised with local clergy by modifying the ordinance to ban malt beverage sales within 300 feet of churches.
Ms. Houts said Pizza Hut would serve only beer, not wine, and after the meeting she said the paperwork to allow the restaurant to do so would be ready within a week.
But Pizza Hut manager Jennifer Ross, interviewed after the meeting, was not sure how quickly her restaurant would be ready with the cold mugs. She said she would confer with her higher-ups later this week.
A note of caution came from Police Commissioner Sandra Gray. “Has it been measured?” she said. “Is it far enough away from the church?”
They declined, and thus nearly a year of bitter contention ended in a quiet chorus of yeses.
Trenton’s ordinance permitting wine and beer by the drink, first introduced last August, met with muscular opposition from church congregations, and attendance at city commission meetings swelled to standing room only while “wets” and “dries” duked it out in the public forum.
When the matter finally came to a vote at the end of the year, Mayor Barton Harris broke the commission’s two/two tie with his yes vote – but this crescendo lapsed into anticlimax as no restaurateur stepped up to serve, as it were. Later, the commission compromised with local clergy by modifying the ordinance to ban malt beverage sales within 300 feet of churches.
Ms. Houts said Pizza Hut would serve only beer, not wine, and after the meeting she said the paperwork to allow the restaurant to do so would be ready within a week.
But Pizza Hut manager Jennifer Ross, interviewed after the meeting, was not sure how quickly her restaurant would be ready with the cold mugs. She said she would confer with her higher-ups later this week.
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