#HaleyForReading – Communication and Transparency; TentGate 5-0 Vote.

On June 16th of last year, the Reading Select Board approved 5-0 an outdoor liquor license for outdoor dining. From that date on, it will be forever known as Tent-Gate. Last summer, I was driving down Main Street with my wife and turned to her and said “How did that restaurant get a tent put out front covering the entire parking lot. That’s great for them but it kind of hoses all the other businesses there. There’s never any parking available over there to begin with”. It turns out the Select Board voted to allow them to have a license without doing their due diligence and only notifying business a couple hours before the vote. The license ran from mid-June to November 1st but a month and a half into it, the Select Board rescinded their license, and the tent came down just as fast as it went up. It was not the owner’s fault for asking, you never know unless you try, especially during these times. The Select Board can insist they were given incomplete information, but I knew in 3 seconds driving by that it was a bad decision for all the other businesses there.

Video Down Below.

Lots of interesting articles on the topic as well:

https://thereadingpost.com/2020/06/17/select-board-approve-outdoor-liquor-licence-for-venetian-moon/
http://homenewshere.com/daily_times_chronicle/news/reading/article_8c25c00a-c8f6-11ea-ba70-afdab32c6303.html
https://thereadingpost.com/2020/07/22/venetian-moon-tent-gone-by-august-17/
https://thereadingpost.com/2020/09/25/letter-downtown-vet-asks-town-for-an-apology/