10 seconds. [Music] Do you have the door? Yeah. Okay. Very good. All right. Hello. Welcome Danvas and welcome to the September 25th, 2025 6 PM
meeting here in the Daniel J. Tumi hearing room. uh tonight. Um board member Dejoko couldn't make it. He had a prior commitment. Um thank you anyways for and for letting us know that. And um I'd like to um
make read that the board is in receipt of an application by Essex Northshore Agricultural and Technical School, 565 Maple Street, the Locking Center. Stacy Johnson, event coordinator for a one-day wine and malt license for the locking
gala, Saturday, September 27th, 2025 from 6:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. Who's here to speak on this? Please, please introduce yourself. Thank you. My name is Heidi Richio. I'm the superintendent director at Essex
Northshore Agricultural and Technical School. And I have with me Stacy. Come on up. Stacy Johnson, who is the coordinator with the Venward catering that we do use for our alcohol service. And first I
would like to thank you very much for even coming here on a day off um to hear this because we know that this was an added duty for you. Um unfortunately I found out Sunday evening around 6 pm that this was required. So certainly
this is not my mo. I I hope you know me by now that I do like to be prepared appropriately. um but working with Stacy and I have to say also Katherine um was a huge help in getting this um moved forward and so I would like to thank everyone. What we are asking for is for
the Larkin Gala. The Larkin Gayla is an event that this is our sixth year having the event. The one of those years however was during the pandemic and we did do a virtual event for that. So since then we have had um four live events and that has been on our south
campus underneath a tent and the green area. So we use the green area space for a kind of cocktail reception and then the dinner inside the tent. The tent held about 250 guests. Now that the Larkin is open, we are using the Larkin
for this event um which is a lot smaller than what that tent was. So, we're really only going to serve approximately between 85 to 110 guests. We're doing this in a cocktail style, which I did submit a floor plan where it's a mixture
of high top tables that have no seating. So, they would be mingling and then four low top tables or um what we call a 60-in round where 10 guests will be sitting. We do have a mix of um older
generation of folks as well as um parents that may be in their late 30s, early 40s that will be attending. So, we did feel that it was necessary to have some appropriate seating throughout the evening. The evening will start at 6:00
p.m. and will end um at 900 p.m. with guests departing by 1000 p.m. The parking, I do have the parking plan. I know that I will be presenting to you in a couple of months how the Larkin is going and um what challenges that we have faced, etc. But I do have that
parking plan for you so that you can have it um at your leisure as well as a log. I believe that the council have asked me to create and draft a log if there were any phone calls that were related to any concerns that the Larkin
had. I will say the other four live events at the Larkin went seamless. Um there were no complaints. Things were cleaned up um relatively quickly because of course we have students that are working this event um and they volunteer
to work this event as well. So, we are asking for a one-day liquor license that Vinward caterers will be um providing the liquor or the beer and wine as well as serving it and clearing it. Wonderful. Thank you, Heidi. Welcome, Stacy, too.
Thank you so much, everybody. Do you have anything you'd like to say? No, she she has said a lot. Yeah, she has said want to go up to the podium. Thank you. Introduce yourself, please. Hi everybody. I'm Stacy Johnson. I'm the
director of catering sales for Vinwood Caterers. We're located in Ipsswitch. Some of you may have heard of us. We've been in business for almost 50 years. We're very grateful for those years and we're very grateful to do a lot of community partnerships. This particular
community partnership that we do with Essex Aggie and the Larkin um is very special to us. Not only do we get to work with Heidi and her teams, but we also have the benefit of seeing the students in their element live. And then we actually get the benefits of being
able to also have some of those students work with us getting real life experience whether it's behind the scenes in the kitchen or on the floor serving guests and and you know waitressing and serving tables. So, it's a great win-win partnership to see
events happening and then the future of hospitality in live development um which after COVID was significantly decimated and so it's great to see that rejuvenation of people wanting to go back into the hospitality industry to
take care of people in another aspect other than health care and being able to partner with such a school of you know Essex Aggie in that caliber is really important to us. Well, thank you. Thank you, Stacy. Um, since the clerk is um
absent today at a seminar, does the town manager have all the paperwork in order? Yes. Confirmed by the clerk. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you. Um, board members, we'll open this up for questions. Gardner, um, happy to vote for this. I do, um,
the packet included the links to the documents you sent, but we didn't we weren't able to click through. Are you including the building only or the building and patio for your liquor liquor consumption? So, the beer and wine. I I don't know if
somebody's going to walk out on the patio um with it, but I believe that we discussed not on the grass area. Okay. No liquor beyond the patio area or beer and wine. A beer and wine would go beyond the patio area.
Okay. um not for tonight but for when you return. Um I'd like to get clarity on what areas we designate for liquor consumption because uh you know you recently used Vinwood as a
statelicicensed operator but I don't know we've ever defined is it within the walls does it include the patio does it include the grounds and I think those are important aspects of a liquor service. self, but not for tonight. Um, just uh I'd like to bring that up and
have us and maybe ask through you to have the town manager ask the clerk to prepare what a what the service area should should be identified as. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you, Governor Dan. Thank you. Um, first of all, for
disclosure, I'm vice president of the Danis Historical Society and we have a relationship with Vinwood, who is our exclusive wedding coordinator and server. One, two. Also, this is not the first time we've had somebody come
to us at near the at the last minute for a request for a one-day liquor license. Doesn't make me happy that it happens, but this is not the first time. You're not the first one. Um, just be aware um, when you come back, there was a complaint recently. I
don't know if it's valid or not, but there was a complaint. You said there's been none. There has been one. Just be aware. Did they Do you know I'm not going into details at this moment. We don't have time, but you you'll I'm sure you'll hear about it. If it was through Dam. I did hear about
that today at 4 PM. Okay. So, if that was through DAM, then I'm not sure that's the one. If that is, then I did hear of that complaint. Okay. Just came in today. Okay. Very good. I have no other questions. I hope you have a successful
night and good luck. Thank you, Dan and Mike. Hi. Thank you. Um, is there going to be a police detail? You're not required to have a police detail. Okay. And the students are going to be
working. You're serving the food will be butler passing the odderves. Okay. And then serving coffee and desserts and cooking in the kitchen. And um the late application was filed because why?
So I don't know. So do you want to explain the 12c and looking for? Okay. Yeah. So with Vinwood catering, we have what's called a 12c caterers license, which means we can serve alcohol uh to private events. So, anything that's not
um open to the public. So, basically, if you're doing something by invitation only that's not open to the public, we can service you uh with with our 12 seed liquor license. We found out I found out last uh like late in the game that it
was um open to the public, which is unfortunately why this started um the whole we need the one-day liquor license. Um, and so unfortunately that put us in this situation. I thought it was by invite only. Um, and we found out
it wasn't by invite only. So that was the reasoning. Okay. And the applicant is the school or the LLC? Who's the applicant? Thank you for asking that question. We
no longer have an LLC. Back in the spring, we did create the LLC as we discussed because we were going for a full liquor license and that was at the recommendation of our attorney as well as our insurance company um David Ray or
the Ray insurance, Leslie Ray Insurance. And so since then, we decided as you know in June not to pursue a full liquor license. So um that LLC no longer exists. So, attorney Kawuchi is I don't
know if it's called disbanding or um filing that. So, there's no sales that had gone through there. We never operated it as an LLC. So, it is the school district. Okay. So, the school district is the applicant. That is correct.
So, maybe you can educate me. So, does the 500 foot rule doesn't come into play when this is all on state property? in school program. No. Um, we did check with DAM. We have um and we again it's in last year I
think it's in last year's documents, but that was a concern that was brought to us by one of our neighbors and we did have evidence um from DAM that they were aware of what we were doing, you know, with the lock and what our plans were. Um, legally we are able to do it. I
don't I think it's chapter 138 if I am correct in saying that. um as long as the school committee is aware and has approved it and the school committee has approved um the use of the Larkin and the use of alcohol service obviously
using Vinwood catering as the 12c. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Wonderful. Thank you, Mike. Um once again, this is an event that it's a school event. Um it's open to the public and everyone's welcome. I drive by and I still see you might have tickets for
sale. So if anybody wants to go um get in touch with the Essex um board members, do I do I have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. All in favor? I oppose. N. Okay.
Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Meetings adjourned. Thank you. And again, I thank you for your time. Thanks.