The state Alcohol Beverage Control has told borough officials they can no longer issue a club license to the Franklin Fire Department and that any future permits for the social club must be made through its office in Trenton.
Kevin Marc Schatz, a senior deputy attorney general and the chief of the ABC's Enforcement Bureau, said state law prohibits any municipally-issued alcoholic beverage license from being used on public property. Instead, a Special Concessionaire Permit must be issued by the director for use on public property.
"For this reason, Franklin Borough should not renew the Club License for the 2019-2020 license term unless it is removed from public property," he wrote in a letter to Borough Attorney John Ursin and dated March 5.
Schatz did, however, say the Division "will not take administrative disciplinary action against the Club License for simply operating on public property during the balance of the 2018-2019 license term" which expires at the end of June.