Community fights to stop new beer store from opening

What was once a seafood shop is set to become Riverside Beer and Wine but residents in the Camden neighborhood have made a push to stop a liquor license from going through. Tuesday night those from neighborhood presented their case at a liquor board hearing.

Mick Haensler, who started a petition against the potential beer store, says he and his fellow neighbors have multiple reasons why they don’t want Riverside Beer and Wine in their community. 

“We’re opposed to this for a number of reasons the main reason is the impact that it will have on this residential neighborhood of Camden,” Haensler said. “We believe this business would be a detriment not only from a crime stats standpoint, but from a quality of life standpoint.”

Haensler and his team accrued over 300 signatures on their petition  in hopes to dissuade the Wicomico County liquor board from giving Riverside Beer and Wine an alcohol license. However the petition was never presented at the meeting because of a discrepancy with the Riverside’s application.

During testimony, Nestor Bleech came forward alleging that Riverside’s owners had forged his signature on their application and had even misspelled his name

“I did not sign this application, the signature on the application is not my signature,” Bleech said.

Bleech claimed he had never even seen the owners before the hearing. To make matters worse the owners responded to Bleech’s testimony by saying it was his wife that had signed on his behalf. Bleech said that was also untrue and that when the owners had met his wife they were claiming to be opening a convenience store, not a beer and wine store.

“I find it infuriating that you would such a preposterous allegation and I would also point out my wife signed this application because you represented you were doing a convenience store,” Bleech said to the store owners during his testimony.

Riverside owners made no comment after Bleech’s testimony and soon after the liquor board moved to deny their application.

After the hearing 47 reached out to Riverside Beer and Wine for a comment on the denial but they refused.

There is no word on whether Riverside will apply for another license or whether they will face legal charges for allegedly lying under oath.

However if they do apply, petitioners say they have a full presentation prepared for the liquor board on why they believe there should not be a beer and wine store in their community.