VILLAS – For the time being, the state Department of Environmental Protection is apparently not going to worry about whether the Sunset Beach Sportsmen’s Club has a liquor license, as it pursues an eviction action against the longtime club.
Mayor Frank Sippel read from a letter the township received from the DEP Monday, Oct. 21, saying the department has rescinded its request, made in each of the last four years, for the township to not renew the liquor license. Sippel said the DEP has decided to wait for the outcome of an eviction action filed June 15, 2022.
The Sunset Beach Sportsmen’s Club is located on the edge of property acquired by the DEP in 1999. The club, which was formed in the 1940s, moved its clubhouse to that location in 1957. It had a lease with the previous owner, Harbison-Walker Refractories, maker of fire-retardant bricks.
According to a 1999 letter from the DEP to the club, which was provided by the club’s attorney, Christopher Gillan-Schwartz, the agency had proposed an arrangement to allow the club to remain on the property provided it perform regular maintenance and pay taxes.
The property is on the southwest edge of the state’s $37.5 million saltwater marsh restoration project in the neighboring Higbee Beach Wildlife Management Area. The project involves a 428-acre section of the nearly 1,200-acre Higbee reserve. The state-owned property the club is located on, which is slightly more than a half-acre, is at the western fringe of the wildlife management area.
A letter dated April 17, 2023, informed the township that the DEP cannot permit alcohol sales and consumption on its property. Gillan-Schwartz said at the time that the DEP does in fact permit alcohol sales on some of its property, including golf courses owned by the state.
At the Oct. 21 meeting, the clerk was asked to read the requirements for issuing a club liquor license, which included the club’s being a charitable organization, being active for at least three consecutive years and having a clubhouse for at least three years. The clerk, when asked if the club met those criteria, said, “Yes, they do.”
Gillan-Schwartz spoke and repeated that the club meets the requirements, highlighting charitable work it has performed in the community, including participating in Toys for Tots.
“It’s a pie slice of America,” he said.
The attorney said he would like the state to recognize that when someone buys a property in a neighborhood they become a neighbor, and he suggested the DEP become a good neighbor to the area. At the same time, he said, the club is not seeking to engage in conflict with the DEP.
“The club would like to be invisible,” he said.
“They are part of the community,” said First Ward Councilman Thomas Conrad.
Township Solicitor Robert Belasco said the club met all the criteria of occupancy and use for a liquor license. Sippel said the request from the DEP always puts the township in an awkward position.
“The club has been there for so many years it’s difficult not to support the club,” the mayor said.
The clerk was asked to read the resolution granting the license into the record, after which the council voted 5-0 to grant it.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
