To The Owners of Myrddin Winery: Thank you for making a large financial sacrifice to show townships that they can't bend the law and force their people to walk away from their rights of law.(even if they happen to be a lawyer and a trustee...)
To Trustees Across The State: Wake Up Call!! The times they are a changin... Gone are the days where you can just fix roads, hold meetings and handle complaints by choosing sides of the group with the most votes because the smaller group can't afford to protect their legal rights! If you are not already embracing the fact that our nation is having some financial difficulties and the only proven solution is, and has always been small business, and that your job is to embrace the changes and help your citizens work through the issues together at the table when they arise, you are already out of office (you just don't know it yet!)
I assume that grayarea has gone through the experience of starting up a small vineyard/winery and was handed their A2 license.... I too speak from experience and my experience was that it required multiple inspections or reviews by multiple departments (health department, EPA Water, EPA Sewer, building department, zoning, TTB, etc). Then there are the requirements to get your labels approved (COLA). That will get you a license to ship wine off site. Then you must go through multiple site inspections to get approved to sell on site. Then there is the capital equipment cost. Then there is the restriction that you can only sell wine you produce on site. So if someone's spouse wants a beer, they must go elsewhere. This all took over 30 months to achieve. Then you get the luxury of maintaining that one vine so it doesn't die (pruning, spray, rodents, deer, mold, cold, spring frost, etc). In reality, most start with a few vines until they learn the ropes. There isn't a single proven way to succesfully raise the vines.
Doesn't sound much like a bar and it doesn't sound like the shortest or cheapest path to a bar if that is what is being suggested above. (I guess I had to explain part of the difference after all).
Meet the people who start these things. The highest percentage of the winery owners don't do it for a living. They work elsewhere to make a living so they can do this. Again, not typical of most bar owners.
I will throw out my generality. Wine lovers are a very different crowd from bar patrons. They are not looking to get drunk and raise hell. They are looking to appreciate the outdoors, understand the wine making process, and enjoy the complexity and diversity that the earth produces and vinters sculpt. I worry more about the safety of parties thrown by the neighbors (who aren't required to have TIPS training).
It doesn't mean that if you plant a vine you can open a winery. People go running off making broad assumptions as usual. There are many other requirements that you must overcome to receive your A2 license. People don't understand that this applies only to zoning. The requirements for the building department agricultural exemption are different (e.g. more than half of the production must be from your farm).
I have been to bars and I have been to wineries. To refer to the two as being the same is rediculous. I hope I don't have to explain why...
This is a two way problem in that the residents assume the worst and the winery owner goes into instant defense. I wonder how much time was spent with the parties involved sitting together at a table to work on manageable solutions to minimize the impact to each other? People likely just drew their line in the sand and wouldn't budge. Just the thing we need when other countries are surpassing us economically and we can't even make a small business work within a rural township..... Wasteful.
Milton official: High court ruling on Myrddin Winery will have statewide effect
To The Owners of Myrddin Winery: Thank you for making a large financial sacrifice to show townships that they can't bend the law and force their people to walk away from their rights of law.(even if they happen to be a lawyer and a trustee...)
To Trustees Across The State: Wake Up Call!! The times they are a changin... Gone are the days where you can just fix roads, hold meetings and handle complaints by choosing sides of the group with the most votes because the smaller group can't afford to protect their legal rights! If you are not already embracing the fact that our nation is having some financial difficulties and the only proven solution is, and has always been small business, and that your job is to embrace the changes and help your citizens work through the issues together at the table when they arise, you are already out of office (you just don't know it yet!)
July 21, 2011 at 7:16 a.m. permalink suggest removal
Winery wins big at state’s top court
I assume that grayarea has gone through the experience of starting up a small vineyard/winery and was handed their A2 license.... I too speak from experience and my experience was that it required multiple inspections or reviews by multiple departments (health department, EPA Water, EPA Sewer, building department, zoning, TTB, etc). Then there are the requirements to get your labels approved (COLA). That will get you a license to ship wine off site. Then you must go through multiple site inspections to get approved to sell on site. Then there is the capital equipment cost. Then there is the restriction that you can only sell wine you produce on site. So if someone's spouse wants a beer, they must go elsewhere. This all took over 30 months to achieve. Then you get the luxury of maintaining that one vine so it doesn't die (pruning, spray, rodents, deer, mold, cold, spring frost, etc). In reality, most start with a few vines until they learn the ropes. There isn't a single proven way to succesfully raise the vines.
Doesn't sound much like a bar and it doesn't sound like the shortest or cheapest path to a bar if that is what is being suggested above. (I guess I had to explain part of the difference after all).
Meet the people who start these things. The highest percentage of the winery owners don't do it for a living. They work elsewhere to make a living so they can do this. Again, not typical of most bar owners.
I will throw out my generality. Wine lovers are a very different crowd from bar patrons. They are not looking to get drunk and raise hell. They are looking to appreciate the outdoors, understand the wine making process, and enjoy the complexity and diversity that the earth produces and vinters sculpt. I worry more about the safety of parties thrown by the neighbors (who aren't required to have TIPS training).
July 14, 2011 at 7:50 a.m. permalink suggest removal
Winery wins big at state’s top court
It doesn't mean that if you plant a vine you can open a winery. People go running off making broad assumptions as usual. There are many other requirements that you must overcome to receive your A2 license. People don't understand that this applies only to zoning. The requirements for the building department agricultural exemption are different (e.g. more than half of the production must be from your farm).
I have been to bars and I have been to wineries. To refer to the two as being the same is rediculous. I hope I don't have to explain why...
This is a two way problem in that the residents assume the worst and the winery owner goes into instant defense. I wonder how much time was spent with the parties involved sitting together at a table to work on manageable solutions to minimize the impact to each other? People likely just drew their line in the sand and wouldn't budge. Just the thing we need when other countries are surpassing us economically and we can't even make a small business work within a rural township..... Wasteful.
July 13, 2011 at 5:01 p.m. permalink suggest removal