Ferguson Township’s Board of Supervisors approved a liquor license transfer for Rutter’s second Centre County location following a public hearing on Tuesday night.
The York-based convenience store and gas station chain intends to acquire the restaurant liquor license from Dante’s Restaurants’ former HiWay Pizza location at 1688 N. Atherton St. in Patton Township and transfer it to the planned new Rutter’s to be located at 948 Blue Course Drive, near the intersection with West College Avenue, in Ferguson Township.
Pennsylvania’s liquor code permits intermunicipal license transfers within a county but requires approval by the receiving municipality.
Ferguson Township earlier this year approved final plans for a 13,470-square-foot Rutter’s store on a vacant lot near the corner of Blue Course Drive and West College Avenue. The plans included a beer cave and wine wall, along with a kitchen, ordering kiosks, dining area, retail displays, coolers and hot and cold beverage stations. The exterior will have eight fueling stations for 16 vehicles and 96 parking spaces.
Jack Byrnes, associate general counsel for Rutter’s, said during Tuesday’s public hearing that the liquor code requires seating for 30 to be able to sell beer and wine, but that the company rarely sees the seating area fully occupied, even at larger stores like the one planned for Ferguson Township.
He added that the “vast majority” of customers purchase alcohol for off-premises consumption, and that Rutter’s “very rarely” sees customers consuming alcohol on store premises.
Among Rutter’s 90 locations in three states, 69 in Pennsylvania are currently licensed to sell alcohol and each is certified in the Liquor Control Board’s Responsible Alcohol Management Program, Byrnes said.
That includes owner/manager training, with a PLCB-approved manager for each location, and seller/server training for any employee involved in the selling, stocking or handling of alcohol. The latter includes training on issues such as spotting fake IDs, identifying intoxicated patrons and more and is required to be completed within six months, but Rutter’s employees typically do so within 30 days
The program also requires a responsible alcohol management component for new employee orientation, which Byrnes said is usually done on the first day, and store signage with warnings about driving under the influence and information for staff.
RAMP certification requires 50% of employees to be trained. Rutter’s aims for 100%, though Byrnes said it can dip below that when new employees are hired until they can complete the training.
Rutter’s anticipates the Blue Course Drive store will be RAMP-certified prior to opening, and Byrnes noted that employees must complete the training every two years.
The company also has internal policies for responsible alcohol sales, Bynres said. Registers cannot process alcohol purchases without a scanned ID; employees under the age of 18 are not permitted to handle alcohol; and larger stores have a designated employee to oversee the seating area where on-premises alcohol consumption may occur.
Employees are also trained “to handle situations involving suspicious behavior or criminal activity,” Byrnes said.
“We rarely see any suspicious behavior or criminal activity related to alcohol in our stores,” he said. “When we did a comparative analysis of our stores that sell alcohol and those that don’t, because we are not licensed in all of our Pennsylvania stores, there’s no meaningful difference between suspicious and criminal behavior at stores that sell alcohol and those that do not.”
Rutter’s representatives recently met with Ferguson Township police Acting Chief Daniel Lewis to review store surveillance capabilities, and Byrnes said Lewis had no concerns.
Byrnes also pointed to Rutter’s Children’s Charities and its donations to community organizations in areas where it operates to highlight the company’s reputation.
“Rutter’s has worked very hard to establish a positive reputation in the communities in which it operates and it simply has too much to lose to handle the sale of alcohol or any other restricted item in a manner that would be irresponsible and would do a disservice to the reputation it has fostered,” he said.
Two community members voiced concerns, both related to traffic issues. A letter submitted prior to the hearing questioned whether Blue Course Drive is equipped to handle the increased traffic and raised worries about adding alcohol to the mix.
Speaking in person, resident Trevor White, a candidate for the Board of Supervisors in the November election, said the addition of Rutter’s will cause “an increase in the statistical probability that I will get killed biking home past this.” He cited examples of drivers rolling through stop signs and red lights and nearly striking him near the Sheetz on Whitehall Road, but did not mention specific concerns about the Rutter’s liquor license transfer request.
A municipality can only deny a liquor license transfer request if evidence is presented that it will be “detrimental to health, welfare, peace and morals of the community.”
“I think those comments are certainly helpful and more helpful months ago during land development months ago…” Supervisor Omari Patterson said. “Today is not about the building coming. It’s coming whether we approve this or not. It’s really about the transfer of a license that someone’s willing to give and this organization is willing to receive… To that end, I did not hear any kind of rationale for denying such.”
The board voted 3-0 to approve the transfer. Supervisors Lisa Strickland and Matthew Heller were absent.
Rutter’s has not provided a timeline for construction or opening of the Ferguson Township store. The company’s first Centre County location opened in 2020 at 731 Rishel Hill Road in Benner Township.
