How we doing? >> Hello everybody. >> Great. How are you? >> Good. >> Good. Hold. >> Hello. Hi. Good evening. >> Hi. >> Hi. How are you all?
>> Good. We'll give it one more minute. Okay, why don't we uh get started? Um hopefully Carrie and Sophie will join us shortly. Um so I wanted to call the board of health
meeting to order. Uh let's do roll call alphabetically. U Ad >> Adali present. >> Sal Vati present. >> Uh Kevin >> Kevin Saxon present. >> Joan
>> Joan Wetzel present >> and Rick Lopez. Um so this is a special meeting. We don't usually meet in December. Uh, but we're trying to accommodate this request
for a tobacco sales permit. Um, and I appreciate everybody taking the time. I don't think this will take very long. And I'm going to turn it over to a day to um kind of frame the question and uh
and then perhaps the uh guests can um introduce themselves and we'll go from there. a day. >> All right. Thank you very much, Dr. Lopez. Uh my name is Adil, director for the town of Reading.
We have um Kabla LLC. They are trying to purchase a tobacco establishment from 87 Walkers Brook Drive, LLC.
Um, in order to have the tobacco permit transferred, they will need approval from the board of health for the transfer to occur. Now, the board doesn't meet um in
December and in July of each year, meaning that they would have to wait till January of next year to get the permit transferred. So I advise that they send a letter to the board um to request the board to convene and hear
the matter and uh if possible you know um grant them uh the approval or deny the approval whatever the board decides. Um, I believe we have two representatives from
COA LLC and I'll um hand it over to um >> I can take >> right Sasha. >> Yeah, Sasha. >> All right. Thank you very much.
>> Yeah. Thank you so much. Uh again, my name is Sasha Meyer. I'm an attorney appearing on behalf of Colia Enterprises LLC. First, I want to thank uh Mr. Solarin and Miss Murphy um with the health department as well as you the board for coordinating and convening
this meeting on a short notice considering our timeline and request. Uh I also want to recognize that um on behalf of the client, we're also represented by James Hall, who's the general counsel of Colia Enterprises.
He's on the call. uh Amario Vendettelli uh director of operations on is on the call as well as uh shareholder uh my colleague John Russell. Um so again thank you so much for for joining us uh tonight. Um, as I mentioned in my letter
uh to the board, Kobia Enterprises is purchasing the property at 87 Walkers Book Drive in Reading together with the business and the property uh as well as all those assets associated with the business, the convenience store
inventory, the fuel, the other assets, etc. The closing date for that uh sale is December 16th, which is next Tuesday. Uh there is a gas station on the property and a convenience store uh which currently sells tobacco products.
Uh according to the town of Reading uh health regulations uh in section 169, the seller of a business holding a valid tobacco product sales permit issued by the town of Reading um may transfer said permit to a bonafide purchaser uh for
value of the business subject to the approval of the board of health. Um, the seller of the property, 87 Walkers Brook Drive LLC, uh, currently maintains a valid tobacco permit license. Um, and now in
connection with the purchase of the business and property at 87 Walkersburg Drive, we seek to transfer that permit to Colia Enterprises on or before that closing date of December 16th. um that section 16E9 also states that we
must submit the permit application within 60 days of the purchase. We've actually already done that. We did that this morning. Uh including all the required documentation, specifically those uh tobacco licenses issued by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.
So, so considering those facts and those circumstances, we're requesting that you, the board of health, uh, approve this transfer of the tobacco product sales permit from the seller to Kobia Enterprises so that way me so that we may begin selling tobacco products on
December 16th. And I'll I'll turn it back over to you. >> Thank you. Dr. Lopez. >> Yeah. So um uh thank you for summarizing uh the
current status and and situation. Um you know I it's clear that um the board needs to approve the transfer of the permit. Um and we can certainly consider that conditionally tonight. Um although
we couldn't actually it would be conditioned on the actual sale finalization of the sale of the property. Um and so just kind of keeping that in mind and as I reviewed our
tobacco regulations um basically sounds like as you mentioned everything is in border. You're not near a school. um you know, you're not near another tobacco um
sales site. Um I guess the only um question I would have I would have two questions and then I'll open it up to the board. Um, one question is, uh, I think Col Colia Enterprises owns a
lot of these kinds of convenience stores and and tobacco sales, retail outlets, and I'm just wondering historically if you have any knowledge um, over the past year or two of how well they do in terms
of um, uh, tobacco sales as far as not resulting in violations in the local towns and municipalities where they work as a enterprisewide company. I think I I Googled and they they own tens or maybe
over a hundred locations and um so they obviously have a lot of experience. Do you have or does anybody else um on the meeting have any uh knowledge of how frequently or there there have been tobacco sales
violations by Kobia? >> Hi, Mr. Lopez, John Russell. Um nice to meet everyone and thanks very much for your time. Uh we'd have to turn that over to Mario Vendotelli. He's director of operations as well as um James Hall,
the the general counsel. we brought them here for uh that particular reason to answer any operational or questions like that. So um with that, Mario or Jay, could you speak to that uh to >> Sure. >> Lopez?
>> Absolutely. Uh James Hall, general counsel for Colia. Uh going back to the the first inquiry as to the number of locations we have um in Massachusetts, we have probably about 60 odd locations.
You probably know them mostly as Season Corner Market. That's the that's the overarching brand. Um then there's a subset of those that are branded as this this location is as just a Shell Food
Mart. Um we in the past year candidly I would I would say years have had no violations in any of our locations. We are um familyrun business. Um pride ourselves on the operation. Um
maybe uh maybe self arandizing. I think we're probably the standard in the industry in terms of this type of operation of convenience stores and gas stations. Um, and again, uh, we don't have these kinds of violations. Um, if we did, the employees would be
short-lived with us, to say the least. >> Great. >> Mar, do you want to add anything or It sounds >> Yeah, we, you know, like Jay said, family-owned business that uh, we take great pride in, you know, not selling tobacco to minors. We, uh, you know,
we're very strict on this. We in our register systems, we make sure that we scan IDs for every tobacco purchase. Period. No exceptions. If you don't have an ID, we cannot scan it and and see the ID. You cannot buy tobacco from us.
>> Great. Because that was that was going to be my second question, which is, you know, what systems and processes do you have in place to prevent um you know, those kinds of violations? Um, just as a comment, and you probably already know
this from reading the uh, Re the Reading um, tobacco regulations, is that um, the this town passed last year a regulation that um, forbids selling tobacco to anyone born after January 1st, 2004.
So, it's not a age related, it's not age 21 or above. it's someone uh person purchasing a tobacco product needs to be have been born before two you know January 1st of 2004. So that might
require some change when you do acquire the property in terms of the way the um scanning system and the software work that they're not they're not uh it's not flagging age 21, it's flagging a
birthday. Um, and so that might be something you'd want to check on the uh regulations if you're not aware of them. Just uh FYI. >> Okay. And we we've we've operated in other communities that have what we would call that that escalating age.
>> Yes. >> And we haven't had haven't had issues with it. But you're right. I mean, it does take some some tweaking and making sure that that particular location is aware of it. >> Great. Um, those are the only questions I had.
Did Does anyone else have any comments or questions um regarding this matter? >> No, I just had the same comment as you, Rick. >> Yeah. Yeah, that was pretty much my my question. Same exact one. >> Me, too. >> Okay. >> And would this be the first
establishment in Reading for Kabla LLC? >> It would be. Yep. >> We're all around, but not right now. And we do plan a fair amount of um improvement, upgrading of the facility
um it over the the next few years. Um we will be back to do some improvement there. >> Right. >> Okay. So if there are no other um comments, questions, um >> can I make a quick comment, Dr. Lopez?
>> Sure. >> So as of right now, the agreement has not been executed. They're proposing to execute the agreement on December 16th. >> So at this point, Kablair LLC does not
own >> right >> this property. the um just a quick um he is correct if I'm pronouncing your name correctly. Forgive me if I'm not. The purchase and sale has been signed for it. Um so everything is signed up and
ready to go. It's being held in escrow uh pending um December 16th when the wire uh the money exchanges hands. Um so that's the only caveats. You're absolutely right, Colia. We don't own it yet, but all the of the agreements have
been signed, executed, and we're holding um all of the documents here in my office from from the seller. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I think like you said earlier, Rick, I don't um I don't see, and
correct me, Dave, if I'm wrong, I don't see any reason why we can't condition this tonight upon the sale uh being completed. Yeah, just for the date. >> On that date. Yeah, exactly. >> There's some attorneys in the room. Maybe they can help step in and uh that
question as well too, >> right? Exactly. >> Um on that note, Dr. Lopez, what um and board members of the board, what would you um conditioning it on the December 16th closing is of course uh fine. Uh
what would you like us to do on the 16th? um you know we'll record the deed first thing in the morning. Um what information would you like us to send and who should we send that to? So, um
you know, actually I wanted to make a motion um that on the 16th once that wire gets transferred and the funds are done and it's a a done deal that um uh someone you know from Colia
representative call um the health director a day um and inform him that the sales and the funds have been completed at which point uh I think he can go ahead and uh issue the permit uh
on that day >> right >> uh once he knows >> right should we hinge it on a certain date or should we hinge it on the actual transaction >> I would what if what if it gets delayed a day or I don't know >> yeah good question on the transaction not not a
>> I would say I would say transaction if if you know >> that's a great point >> never know Yeah, >> I'm I'm just saying, you know, I'm just being devil's advocate here, you know. >> Thank you very much. >> I've been in a lot of lot of business transactions and they don't always go smooth. >> Yep. >> Good point. Good point.
>> That's a great point. Thank you for that, S. >> Yeah, no problem. Yep. >> Or it could go earlier, right? >> It won't go earlier. >> Tell you that. >> There you go. So, I mean, if you want to make the same
motion, Rich, and uh and just hinge it on transaction instead of date, I'd second that. >> Okay. So, let me uh let me sort of make a motion um to conditionally approve the permit application for the tobacco sales
permit in in this matter at 87 Walkers Brook Drive. Um and it's conditioned on um two items. One is that um that the sale the sales is com the sale
is completed with the transfer of funds um between the current owners and Colia and that the new owners or representatives thereof um call the health director
once those funds are transferred to inform him of the finalization of the sales execution. ution at which point uh a day the health director can u issue the permit transfer on behalf of the board.
>> I second that one. >> Okay. >> Can I >> can I say something? >> Yes. At what point do you have to do a change of ownership once the sale has been executed
like a formal change of ownership at the town clerk's office? >> Oh, so we can u Mr. Seren. So um the deed is recorded obviously with the registry of deeds um in the land court um Tuesday morning. um we can send
whatever you like a notice. Uh typically the registry reaches out to the town and notifies them you know who the new owner is but um quite often too we send a letter to both the tax assessor and the collector just notifying that um in this
case on December 16th uh the new owners Kia Enterprises and going forward all tax invoices and otherwise should be sent to their headquarters. Is that is that what you're asking or or is that helpful? >> It is helpful. Um but there is an
official um change of ownership that you still have to um go through at the town clerk's office. >> Okay, we'll double check that with the clerk. Thank you for that. >> Okay, thank you. >> So I guess in addition to a call, it
would be the the paperwork too, Rich. >> Yeah, the documentation at the town clerk's office. Is that what you're saying today? >> Correct. I would add that uh amend that my motion to include that. >> Yeah, good catch today. Thanks. >> Okay, >> thanks.
>> So, we had a second. Um, so roll call. S. >> Yes. >> Kevin, >> yes. >> Joan, >> yes. >> And Rick, yes. Okay. So permit is transfer permit is approved uh
conditionally upon those items that we mentioned and you should be all set. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you again. >> Thank you. >> Thank you and have a great holiday everybody. >> Yeah, everybody. Have a great holiday. >> You as well in luck with
Thank you. Look forward to it. Yeah. Bye. Bye.