Dollar General pleads guilty
Dollar General Store has opted to pay a $500 fine after pleading guilty to selling beer to a minor.
Farragut Beer Board heard from Danny Waddle, manager of Dollar General Store, 11809 Kingston Pike, and Capt. Alan “Wolfie” May with Knox County Sheriff’s Office, during a hearing Thursday, June 22.
The sheriff’s office performed a beer sting on various businesses in the Town’s limits May 21. During the operation, a Dollar General employee allegedly sold alcohol to a minor, which is a violation of the Town’s ordinance 8-201 et seq.
“Dollar General does accept that there was a violation,” Waddle said. This is the store’s first offense of the ordinance.
May, the beer inspector for Knox County and town of Farragut, said he sent an under-aged minor into Dollar General May 21, and the minor was able to buy a six-pack of Miller Lite.
“The store clerk was cited to Sessions Court in Knox County June 5,” he said.
“The question becomes whether there’s going to be a revocation or if there is a fine,” Tom Hale, town of Farragut attorney, said.
“[The clerk] did ID the person and it was just a miss-key,” Waddle said. “That’s what our company determined.
“It’s still a technical violation,” he said. “She’s a very nice girl, very efficient but when she punched [the date] into the computer, the eight and nine were together. It was a careless act on her part.”
Waddle explained the computer prompts the age any time someone sells beer or cigarettes.
“The person has to physically pull out the ID,” he said. “[The clerk] just punched the year in wrong. She just made a mistake.”
However, May said all his under-aged operatives whose driver’s licenses are restricted have a red stripe on their license.
“In this case, [the operative’s] driver’s license said ‘under 21’ until April 28, 2019, so they don’t have to do any swiping, anything else,” he said.
According to the Town’s ordinance, the Beer Board has the power to revoke or suspend Dollar General’s beer permit or it can offer a civil penalty as an alternative, Town recorder Allison Myers said. She added the civil penalty is not to exceed $2,500.
“The permit holder shall have seven days within which to pay the civil penalty before the revocation or suspension shall be imposed,” she said. “If the civil penalty is not received within seven days, the revocation or suspension shall begin eight days after the Beer Board hearing.”
If the penalty is paid on time, Myers said the revocation would be withdrawn.
Vice Mayor Ron Pinchok said after having several violations last year the Board discussed what should be fined and suspension periods. The suspension period has been from seven to 30 days — typically 14 days — and the fine for the first offense has averaged $500, second offense has been from $750 to $1,000.
“I spoke to [Knox County Commissioner] John Schoonmaker, to see what the Knox County Commission does because I’m thinking maybe we ought to be in concert with the Knox County Commission and have some continuity between us,” Alderman Louise Povlin said. “For [the county’s] first offense, they do a 30-day suspension and a $1,000 fine. On the second offense, they do a 60-day suspension and a $2,500 fine.
“I support that idea,” she said. “I think that would be a good way for us to go.”
“That seems a little steep to me,” Pinchok said.
Along the same line, Alderman Bob Markli made the motion to allow a $500 fine and 14-day suspension.
“I am concerned we are going a little light,” Povlin said. “I think we should go harder.”
“This is more than we’ve done in the past,” Pinchok said. “I’m not sure I agree with you.”
The Board ultimately voted 4-1 to approve the $500 fine/
14-day suspension for Dollar
General Store. Povlin voted against the motion while Markli, Mayor Ralph McGill, Pinchok
and Alderman Ron Williams voted in favor of it.
In other matters, the Beer Board approved unanimously a special event request for Farragut Business Alliance Inc./Shop Farragut’s Red, White and Blues Jam Saturday, July 8, at West End Center.
“Everything is in order,” Allison Myers, Town Recorder, said.
“[The event is] one of the Farragut Business Alliance’s shopping center events they agreed to in their memorandum of understanding,” Alderman Louise Povlin said. “It’s going to be a really nice event with a bunch of bands. It is celebrating the shopping center and businesses in the center.”
