County Plans To Keep Retail Store In Snow Hill
SNOW HILL — Despite earlier reports to the contrary, there are no definitive plans on the county’s part to close the Snow Hill retail liquor outlet.
According to the County Commissioners and the DLC, Worcester has no desire to close the retail location and has every intention of maintaining some kind of government operated liquor retail in the Snow Hill community for the foreseeable future, though a re-location is possible in the future.
The announcement was made during last week’s Board of License Commissioner’s (BLC) meeting that the county had confirmed a September 2014 closure date for the DLC’s Snow Hill retail branch. However, this week the County Commission clarified that last week’s statement was a miscommunication made to the BLC. While the Snow Hill spot is not as profitable as other DLC locations and there could be changes in the months ahead, nothing is set in stone yet. County Attorney Sonny Bloxom wrote the BLC a letter Wednesday explaining the mix-up and apologizing for any confusion.
“The dispensary is consistently losing money despite our best efforts to trim costs. Furthermore, the county has not been able to get the landlord to reduce the rent to an amount that is more commercially reasonable in this economic climate,” the letter reads. “Therefore, the county is seriously evaluating other alternatives to the present location. It is the commissioners’ desire to continue to operate a dispensary in Snow Hill to better serve the citizens of that community. We apologize for the confusion caused by our earlier statement.”
An alternative that the county is considering includes moving to a new location. One idea that has been floated so far is in renovating the DLC’s Snow Hill office to include space for retail sales. While it would remove the issue of rent at the current retail store, the estimated cost of the renovations are currently too high to be viable, according to Bobby Cowger, director of the DLC.
“We looked at that last year, about re-locating it to the front of our central office because we keep that vacant front,” he said. “But the re-modeling costs of that, because the building has got quite a bit of age to it and under the new codes and everything, it was going to cost a fortune. It was like over $200,000 to re-model the building and bring it up to a code that would be satisfactory for a retail business.”
A less expensive renovation could be possible, according to Commissioner Virgil Shockley. The plan that has been discussed up to this point would be the “Taj Mahal” of re-modeling, Shockley said, and if the county does decide to move retail to the DLC office there might be a way to keep the price tag from snowballing out of control. But Shockley doesn’t anticipate that the commission will consider changing anything with the current retail situation until at least the fall.
Commissioner Merrill Lockfaw, who sits on the DLC committee representing the county, agreed with Shockley’s timeline. Though the situation isn’t ideal, Lockfaw pointed out that Snow Hill residents seem happy with how everything is set up right now, as evidenced by the number of calls he received from people upset when they heard the inaccurate announcement that the retail location had a definitive closing date of September.
As it stands, the DLC budget includes funding for the Snow Hill outlet for the next 12 months. How the lay of the land will change in the next year could influence the county’s decision on whether to keep the store, re-locate it or close it altogether. Some kind of liquor retail option has to remain open in Snow Hill, according to the code. That could be operated either by the county or, via the recent change to state law, a private business in the town could apply for a Class D alcoholic beverage license.
If a private business provided liquor off-sale, the county could consider the community need served and close the store. But so far residents seem inclined to keep the DLC. Several argued against a private store applying for a Class D license at last week’s BLC meeting though a smaller number did turn out in support.
Judging by the calls and emails he has received, Shockley feels that his constituents in Snow Hill aren’t ready to fix something that they don’t consider broken.
“The calls basically said, ‘As long as the county is here, we don’t think we need another one and we’re happy with the way it’s going,’” he said. “Their support was more for the [DLC store], I guess, and you have to realize that with the county, part of that money comes back to the town of Snow Hill.”
While granting liquor off-sale to a business in Snow Hill would not guarantee that the county eventually closes the DLC retail, Shockley added that his district has traditionally been wary of oversaturating the area with liquor stores.
Whatever happens with the county liquor outlet in Snow Hill over the next few months, Cowger made it clear that the DLC employees who work at that location are in no danger of losing their jobs. They will be kept if the store re-locates or even if it closes down, as there is room for them in other stores.