City, FUSD create inconvenient reality for McLane convenience store owner

DOZEN STEPS TO SUCCESS

The 12 are:

• No sale of adult or pornographic magazines or movies or similar products.
• No sale of cigarette papers, pipes, smoking paraphernalia, e-cigarettes or related supplies; only typical branded cigarettes and cigar tobacco products will be sold.
• No sale of single cans of beer; no sale of wine in less than 750ml containers.
• No sale of fortified wine or malted beer.
• Ghuman will require all employees to participate in the Standardized Training for Alcohol Retailers program.
• Ghuman will support any bona fide education program at McLane on the consequences of underage drinking.
• Ghuman will require a store manager to be on-site from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays.
• Ghuman will install a Viage Cav 3200 reader (or its equivalent) capable of reading and verifying modern identification cards.
• Ghuman will not sell individual paper or plastic cups. If you want a paper or plastic cup, you have to buy at least 25.
• No beer or wine will be sold while McLane is in session, the ban starting 30 minutes before school begins and continuing for 30 minutes after school ends.
• Ghuman will comply with any other reasonable conditions imposed by the city.
• These conditions are a one-year pilot program. Twelve months after alcohol sales begin, city officials and Ghuman will meet to see how things went. If everyone gives the experiment a thumb’s up, then the city will consider loosening up the restrictions on the hours of alcohol sales.

Poeschel had to be confident when he sent this letter to Clark. That’s because he had in hand a letter dated Jan. 4, 2016 from Fresno police.

The six-page letter covered some of the same ground in Poeschel’s letter to Clark. The police letter had its own conditions. For example, Ghuman had to install a color video camera system. He had to be a tyrant when it came to chasing away loiterers.

But the money quote was unmistakable.

“The Fresno Police Department is not in opposition of this Conditional Use Permit, providing the applicant agrees to the listed conditions,” the police said.

Poeschel had his wedge.