Store owners fight county over revoked beer license
Martin’s Market co-owners Dustin Martin and Travis Martin, who are not related, received disappointing news Thursday when the Safety Committee, acting as the county’s Beer Board, revoked their previously issued beer license because the business is technically too close to a church, in this case, the Bonner Church of Christ.
The license had originally been issued with the understanding the Martin’s Market building met county distance requirements, which states any business selling alcoholic beverages must be at least 2,000 feet from a church, school or public gathering place. But a subsequent complaint resulted in an investigation that showed there had been a mistake in the method of measurement.
Beer board members had measured along the road between the church and the store, which met the requirements and the license was then issued. But it was later pointed out by County Executive Kenneth Rogers that the statute requires the measurement be made on a direct line between the buildings. By this method, the distance between the Martin’s Market building and the church was short by around 250 feet.
As a result, the beer board revoked the license. The vote to do so was unanimous.
The reaction from the Martins and their supporters, including several family members, was indignation. The owners are left with around $500 worth of beer they can’t sell without a beer license.
As to whether he and his partner will take the issue to court, Travis Martin said they are checking into it. “We’re going to take this as far as we have to,” Travis said. “This is our living. It’s not over.”
Though it was reportedly not a Bonner Church of Christ church member who made the initial complaint which generated the re-measurement, church members had since been contacted and attended the Thursday meeting where they asked the beer board to uphold the law.
Safety Committee chairman David Grissom pointed out the beer board had no choice under current law.
“I want the boys and these people to understand we were for you,” Grissom said. “But the guidelines are the law and that’s what we had to do.”
Grissom had retrieved a copy of the original resolution, from April 13, 1942, which states, in part: “In no event shall such beverages be sold at places within 2,000 feet of a school, church or place of public gathering.”
It had been pointed out the only way the beer board could reinstate the license would be to change the distance guidelines, which would have to be made in the form of a resolution and would have to go before the full county commission.
The Martins indicated they would challenge the decision in court in an effort to have their license reinstated or to recoup their financial losses.
“I understand there are laws they have to follow, and we have to follow,” Travis Martin said. “But they can get this changed. They could help us out.”
Travis was discouraged no one seemed willing to sponsor a resolution to decrease the distance laws, since this has been done in other counties. It’s even been done in the city of McMinnville.
Though Travis said he and his partner had not bought the business specifically to sell beer, he said it would be hard to make a go of it without selling beer.
“We have competitors who can sell it,” he said, adding that they would stay in business despite the loss of their beer license. “We have to. We’ve gotten into this now and we’ve got to go ahead with it.”