Liquor

If the Black Eyed Susan were a race horse, it would be a sprinter. It makes one strong move, then fades quickly. The strong move occurs this weekend when the cocktail will be in demand at Pamlico Race Track, during both the running of the Black Eyed Susan Stakes on Friday and the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. Over these two days, about 25,000 servings of the libation, poured into commemorative glasses, will be sold at $8 apiece, track officials say. But as soon as Preakness weekend ends, so does the does the local thirst for the Susan.

The Sun's recent article on the use of zoning laws to limit liquor stores highlights a complex issue ("Zoning should be used to limit liquor stores, Hopkins study says," April 12). We support a community's right to decide for themselves what type of businesses and services are located in their neighborhoods, and we believe that alcohol licensing regulations should be enforced to deal with those who are not in compliance with the law. These are local issues that should be discussed and decided by all members of the community, including local hospitality businesses.

The Sun's recent article on the use of zoning laws to limit liquor stores highlights a complex issue ("Zoning should be used to limit liquor stores, Hopkins study says," April 12). We support a community's right to decide for themselves what type of businesses and services are located in their neighborhoods, and we believe that alcohol licensing regulations should be enforced to deal with those who are not in compliance with the law. These are local issues that should be discussed and decided by all members of the community, including local hospitality businesses.

Citing numerous accounts of neighborhood disturbances, the Baltimore Board of Liquor License Commissioners ruled not to renew the license of the Museum Restaurant and Lounge in Mount Vernon after four hours of deliberation Thursday night. Liquor board chairman Steve Fogleman said management of the Museum - which set up in the former Brass Elephant space - presented the business as an “upscale restaurant” when applying for the license, but it was in reality a nightclub. He refuted Museum owner Walter Webb's claims from earlier this month that Webb had been unfairly targeted because he is one of the few African American business owners in Mount Vernon.

Your recent editorial expressed the view that "the ban on grocery store sales of alcohol has one purpose - preventing competition, to the benefit of existing retailers and to the detriment of consumers" ("Liquor and capitalism," May 14). Yet it also has the effect of de-emphasizing liquor to families shopping for food with hard-earned dollars. All the dollars, time and effort devoted to learning about, tasting, shipping, buying and imbibing alcohol may someday be directed toward more important things, such as wholesome food, good conversation, outdoor activities and the arts - and even reading newspapers.

ROCKVILLE - The Virginia couple at the center of last week's White House security breach is now accused of bouncing a nearly $24,000 check for liquor purchased in Maryland. The Montgomery County government, which conducts all the wholesale liquor sales on its territory, filed a lawsuit Thursday against Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the couple who got into a state dinner last week without an invitation. The Salahis purchased wine and beer for America's Polo Cup World Championship, a charity polo event they held in the county in May. According to documents, the couple returned more than $10,000 worth of merchandise, but they still owe more than $13,000.

Owners of three Howard County liquor stores were fined for not asking for identification and serving underage patrons sent by police to test them. All three admitted the infractions, which took place last year, in cases decided Feb. 21. Michael Platt and Richard Brunatti, owners of Your Wine and Spirits Shoppe on Birmingham Way in Woodstock, were fined $1,000 by the Howard County Alcoholic Beverage Hearing Board because of an incident Sept. 27 during which a clerk sold a six-pack of Smirnoff Ice to an underage female volunteer.

The menu at Vito's Cafe in Cockeysville boasts Italian standards like veal Parmesan and house specialties including stuffed quail - but if customers want to pair any of that with a glass of Chianti, they have to bring their own. Vito's doesn't have a license to pour. Co-owner Tony Petronelli has wanted one for years, but none has been available. The county limits the number in his area, and other license holders sell them at a premium. When his phone rang a few months ago, someone wanted more than $300,000 for a license.

The Howard County Police Department is going to get tough on people who sell alcohol to minors.Beginning Feb. 1, anyone who sells alcohol to minors will be charged with a misdemeanor crime punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to two years' imprisonment, Police Chief James N. Robey told the Liquor Board yesterday.That was the policy instituted by the previous police chief, he said, but members of the Howard County Beverage Association asked him to rescind it shortly after he took command of the department in 1991.

Baltimore City's liquor trade is on the threshold of a major change. Under an emergency bill recently signed into law by Gov. William Donald Schaefer, all liquor stores masquerading as taverns will have to adjust their legal status by next March.This crackdown will affect 150 to 200 of the 625 establishments with 7-day tavern licenses, mostly in inner-city neighborhoods.As the middle class has moved to the suburbs and fear of crime has diminished night-time trade, many once-thriving corner taverns have abolished their bars and seating areas altogether but continue operating as package-goods stores from behind bullet-proof partitions.

Using zoning laws to limit alcohol outlet density won't stop the heaviest drinkers from consuming alcoholic beverages ("Government should use zoning to limit liquor stores, Hopkins researchers say," April 11). Such a solution oversimplifies the problem of alcohol abuse. Just compare Maryland and Pennsylvania. Despite its smaller population, Maryland's private control of alcohol sales means it has roughly 1.5 times as many alcohol retail outlets as government-controlled Pennsylvania.

For years, Baltimore officials felt they could do little more than throw up their hands in frustration over the archipelago of small liquor stores that blight many of the city's poorest neighborhoods. Local residents complain the businesses are magnets for crime whose patrons are unruly and a threat to public safety, while public health officials cite the strong correlation between a range of serious health disorders and the number of liquor stores in a community. The ineffectiveness of the state-controlled city liquor board, as documented in a recent audit, only makes matters worse.

Zoning laws have become a powerful way to reduce the number of liquor stores in cities, but too few government officials use them, Johns Hopkins University public health researchers said in a new report. Researchers from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have created a guide to advise governments of the regulatory power they have to combat alcohol abuse. They hope the report, published in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease, will bring more attention to the issue.

Here's the gist of what legislative auditors discovered when they recently evaluated Baltimore's liquor board: It is doing a lousy job. And here's a short summary of the liquor board's response: Yup. It would be shocking if it weren't so predictable. Does anyone living in this city believe the Baltimore Board of Liquor License Commissioners has ever done an adequate job of overseeing businesses that sell alcohol? Maybe a few former commissioners, but probably not them either. Not that the business of regulating bars and package stores is without controversy elsewhere in the state.

Black scuff marks line the staircase at 922 N. Charles St., left there by frustrated tenants kicking the wall in a vain attempt to make their neighbor, the Museum Restaurant and Lounge, quiet down. Most nights, tenants say, the sound of DJs hyping up the crowd rattles china cabinets and nerves alike. "It's thump, thump, thump from the music," said Will Penn, 48, who lives in one of the apartments next door. Penn, like many other Baltimoreans who live near bars, said he has filed complaints using the city's 311 system but has seen nothing change.

A neighborhood organization is protesting the liquor-license renewal of The Museum, the establishment now occupying what was once the Brass Elephant in Mount Vernon . According to Baltimore City Liquor License Board documents, the Mount Vernon Belvedere Improvement Association is asking the board not to renew the property's Class B restaurant license for the following reasons: 1) licensees leasing their license or otherwise permitting a non-licensee, Walter Webb, to operate an establishment primarily promoting and serving alcoholic beverages; 2)

Frederick County's Liquor Commission fined Castle Liquors in Mount Airy $200 Wednesday for selling alcohol to a minor.The Prospect Road store was one of eight establishments caught in a mid-April sting by the Frederick County Sheriff's Office. Liquor commission members issued $2,350 in fines to the stores Wednesday.Hymiller is deployed in Mediterranean SeaNavy Seaman Recruit Scott H. Hymiller recently departed for a six-month Mediterranean deployment aboard the amphibious transport dock USS Austin, based in Norfolk, Va., as part of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington Joint Task Group.

Jack Wulfert, a retired Towson merchant, died Thursday at St. Joseph Hospital. He was 88 and lived at Edenwald in Towson.Services for Mr. Wulfert will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow at Trinity Episcopal Church, 120 W. Allegany Ave. in Towson.A Baltimore native, he attended local public schools. For 22 years, he owned and operated E&J Liquors at 413 York Road in Towson. He was president of the Maryland Liquor Stores Association from 1949 to 1957. In 1958, he was president of the Towson Shrine.

Next week, the Baltimore City Council will consider the changes to the zoning code that will affect about 100 of the city's 1,300 existing liquor outlets. These outlets have been non-conforming for more than 40 years, and it's time for them to be closed. During the Planning Commission's hearings, two students from Patterson High School testified on why the number of liquor outlets needs to be reduced. One of the commissioners said their testimony moved him more than any of the others.

A phase-out of renewable energy subsidies for paper mills has cleared the Maryland Senate, though with a provision that guarantees the state's only paper plant in Allegany County would continue to receive payments underwritten by taxpayers. Environmentalists hailed the 33-13 vote Thursday for SB684 , which they said would close what they considered a major loophole in Maryland's renewable energy law. Currently, mostly out-of-state paper mills receive millions of dollars annually for powering their operations by burning "black liquor," a tarry byproduct of the pulping process, and other wood waste.