Saugus board to push for additional liquor licenses

SAUGUS – The Saugus Board of Selectmen added a vote for additional liquor licenses to its agenda next week after holding a public hearing on the issue Wednesday night.Selectman Steve Castinetti made a motion to hold the hearing at a meeting last month and on Wednesday said Saugus needs the revenue that could be generated from more restaurants on Route 1.”As we’re all aware the town is in some financial situation where we need to maximize revenue as much as possible,” said Castinetti. “Saugus is unlike other communities of the same size. We have a major thoroughfare running through that has over one million cars a week. We don’t just feed people from Saugus. We feed people from all over the North Shore and Saugus needs to be treated differently.”Castinetti pointed to a meeting on July 19 where three proposed restaurants went before the board to request a liquor license.”We only had one to give out,” said Castinetti. “We need to get more and hopefully the town sees the need to attract new business and increase revenue.”Peter Rossetti, the director of the Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors, spoke in support of additional licenses and submitted a letter to the board on behalf of the chamber.According to Rossetti, towns are issued one liquor license per 1,000 residents. Saugus currently has 27 licenses which are all in use, including an additional license for exclusive use at the Square One Mall.”The Chamber of Commerce supports the effort to encourage the Massachusetts legislature to award additional full liquor licenses for the town of Saugus as a way to attract additional businesses to Saugus,” said Rossetti in the letter.The letter also noted that Route 1 is different from limited access highways like Route 93 because of the curb cuts and businesses every “few hundred feet.””Saugus has considerably more traffic inflow from Route 1 than other municipalities of the same population due to the highway,” said Rossetti.Rossetti said the Chamber of Commerce hasn’t discussed a specific number of additional licenses it would like to see.Selectman Julie Mitchell stressed she wanted to make sure the licenses would only go to restaurants and not nightclubs or liquor stores, however, Selectmen Chairman Michael Serino said he was “uncomfortable” with that statement because “you never know what could happen.”Serino said the issue will be put to a vote next week and if approved it would go to Town Meeting for a vote and then to the State House where special legislation would have to be filed.The Selectmen meet again on Tuesday.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].