At their meeting June 14, the Granby Board of Trustees acted as the town’s Liquor Licensing Authority Board and approved a liquor license renewal for the 7-Eleven at 511 E. Agate Ave. The Granby Police Chief found instances of the businesses owned by the same company, Willis Investments X, LLC, selling alcohol to minors and recommended that the board consider revising their requirements for liquor licenses.

Chief David Shaffer’s letter to the board clarified that he found no instances of the Granby 7-Eleven selling alcohol to minors, but he suggested adding a requirement for Training for Intervention Procedures or other responsible vendor training to the town code.

Granby Mayor Josh Hardy wrote in an email that most of the staff supported having the Town Attorney Nathon Krob research how the change could be made. Krob and Town Manager Ted Cherry will present their findings to the board at a later meeting.

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“If it is determined that requirement can be made, an amended resolution will be brought to the board for their consideration,” Hardy wrote. “If it’s found that it cannot be a requirement, either the Town Manager or the Town Attorney will likely bring that information up in an update notifying the Liquor Licensing board.”

TIPS trains servers and vendors to identify alcohol-related issues like underage drinking and intoxication. Shaffer said at the meeting that the police department could likely provide the training.

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“We have individuals on staff that are interested in DUI enforcement, but also alcohol enforcement, and safety generally,” Shaffer said. “So I think that it’s quite possible for us to train some of our staff to be able to provide this as a service to establishments and vendors within the community.”

The frequency of TIPS training sessions could impact the board’s decision. Hardy said he saw infrequent sessions as the largest potential downside of making the training a requirement because businesses would have to wait for employees to get training before they could start working.

“I realize our local employers struggle with staffing issues already,” Hardy wrote. “I would expect the Town Board and staff to take this issue into consideration (when) it is brought forward.”

Shaffer said the training could be offered on a “fairly frequent basis,” and Hardy wrote that his impression was that the Granby Police could offer training often enough to not interrupt businesses’ hiring practices.

The board would not add this requirement as a response to any alcohol-related incidents in the town, Hardy wrote. He added that he does not know of any liquor license violations in Granby since he has been on the board.

“If the requirement is made to have all businesses and their employee’s complete TIPS (or equivalent) training, I feel it provides an addition(al) layer of protection for employers, their employees and our community as a whole,” Hardy wrote.