HANSON – The saying goes that nothing’s certain except death and taxes.
Hanson might be ready to amend that to include the annual citizen’s petition on the Town Meeting warrant to try repealing a 2024 Town Meeting bylaw vote banning the sale of nip bottles by package and convenience stores.
At issue is the ongoing debate between supporting small businesses, while combatting the problems of driving littering vs basic respect for a town business regulation.
The Town Meeting run-up this time around did see some firsts, though, from an individual text-banking nip ban opponents to encourage them to attend Town Meeting, a poster campaign among friendly businesses participated in, and a stand-out by Luke’s Liquors to informally poll attendees, have more commonly been associated with election campaigns.
In the end, nothing changed but the temperature under collars as debate roiled on.
The petition, introduced by David George as a help to small business owners, was again rejected by the Town Meeting.
“The petition, upon approval, would support the struggling small businesses in the town of
Hanson,” George said.
Green Hanson chair Marianne DiMascio said that during her 16 years with the organization, the group has cleaned up “thousands and thousands” of nip bottles along Hanson roadways.
“Those thousands and thousands of nips mean that people are driving and drinking and throwing [the nip bottles] on the side of the roads, in addition to the trash,” she said.
Resident Bob Hayes shared his thought that to avoid placing “undue stress on small businesses,” Hanson could consider if it is legally possible to place a 10-cent tax or a similar revenue source on the nip bottles to ensure they are returned.
“Why don’t we get innovative instead of always saying no,” he said.
From the look on Town Counsel’s face, we do not have an answer to that at the moment,” said Town Moderator Sean Kealy.
Resident Steve Smith of 4 Monroe St., said did know the answer to Hayes’ question.
“The answer is no,” Smith said. “As of 2010 that is illegal. You cannot put taxes on alcohol, specifically. That was one of the arguments I made when I petitioned this originally last year.”
He also noted that most empties are found within an eighth of a mile from a liquor store.
One retailer put up posters advocating “Cold on the Go, and yet another one was ignoring the ban.
Kealy could attest to that, pulling an unopened nip bottle from his pocket that he said he bought at Villge MiniMart last month, despite the ban on sales.
Retailer Kenny Patel said he wished that “banning the nips would change a little problem, but it would not.” He argued it would only slap small businesses financially.
“We need to educate our people,” he said. “[It] doesn’t matter if it’s nips, paper, glass, a water bottles – anything in our town. This is our house. You cannot throw [away] anything.”
Irwin Patel, who gave his address as 904 Main St., was asked to pause as Kealy in fact brought forth his nip bottle.
“Are you here from the Village Mini-Mart?” Kealy said to a perplexed-looking Patel, who replied, “Yup.”
“Well, I think that’s the store a gentleman before you alluded to,” Kealy said. “Are you still sellig nips?”
After a pause, Patel said, “Yes,” arguing he is the store manager, not the owner.
“I bought this on April 14, and the law has been in place since January,” Kealy said. “I don’t mean any more than to just bring attention to this. I don’t care whether we ban nips or not. What bothers me, what really disgusts me, is when people don’t follow the law that this Town Meeting passed.”
Kealy said he would be seeking a conversation with the Select Board about methods of enforcing the ban and for other issues on which Town Meeting took votes.