ALTOONA, Pa. -- Sheetz Inc. officials plan to announce today that they have received a state license to sell alcohol at their convenience restaurant in Altoona, Pa., according to The Altoona Mirror.
Alcohol sales will begin immediately following the 1:30 p.m. announcement, Monica Jones, Sheetz spokesperson, told the newspaper.
Alterations were made to the store to obtain a state beer license, the report said.
About two years ago Ohio Springs Inc., a company related to Sheetz, asked the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) to transfer an Eating Place [image-nocss] Malt License from a Broad Ave. business to the store at 1915 Pleasant Valley Blvd.
Plans call for the sale of beer and malt-based coolers in six packs, 12-packs and 40-oz. bottles, said the report.
The PLCB approved the transfer in September 2004. A conditional licensing agreement was accepted a year later by Ohio Springs and the state. The license effort has been in the state courts, with Commonwealth Court agreeing in 2005 that the Malt Beverages Distributors Association, a trade association for Pennsylvania beer distributors, be permitted to intervene in the license proceeding. The PLCB had ruled the association lacked standing.
A state hearing examiner in June 2004 took testimony on nine issues, including whether state approval would adversely affect the health, welfare, peace and morals of the neighborhood within 500 feet of the business.
The conditional approval came even though the PLCB's licensing division opposed it, said the report.
Ohio Springs agreed to nine PLCB conditions. The records of the two businesses would be kept separately and the gasoline business would be separated from the store through separate deeds, the paper said, and physical alterations include installing a speed bump as a separation barrier between the gasoline island and the store.
Store employees took training in December offered through the PLCB in preparation for the commencement of alcohol sales, the report added.
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