New Providence Residents: End the 'Dry' Spell

When Christina and Joe Fallon considered moving to New Providence from Brooklyn, they thought it was quaint that their new hometown didn't have a bar. But now these newcomers are thrilled that, in 2012, they can stay within borough limits to get a drink.

“It’s not really about the alcohol,” Christina said. “But It would be nice to have a place to go with the family and still get a drink. It would be good for the town.”

Virginia Yeager, who has lived in New Providence for 35 years, agrees.

“I am tired of going out of town for a drink and a good meal,” she said.

The Fallons and Yeager are among the 1,561 residents who voted “Yes” on the on Nov. 8, which empowers the borough council to sell liquor licenses to businesses that want to serve alcohol. Those in favor outnumbered the 720 teetotalers who wanted New Providence to remain

Borough Administrator Douglas Marvin said no official action has been scheduled regarding the liquor licenses because ordinances have to be introduced and adopted within the same calendar year. Therefore, he said the Jan. 23 council meeting would be the earliest time that any formal action would begin.

Similar referendums failed on three other occasions — in 1950 by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, in 1964 with 3,891 “No” votes vs. 1,250 “Yes" votes, and in 1978 with 3,411 “No” votes and 1,001 “Yes” votes. But New Providence residents spoke loud and clear on Nov. 8 with the liquor license referendum that was nearly 62 years in the making — and comes more than 300 years from the alcohol-free sensibilities of the Puritans who founded the town in 1720.

Perhaps the most remarkable development in this process has been the discussion that's developed among New Providence residents, municipal and as the borough faces a new opportunity to reinvent itself and find a way to survive in a difficult economy. 

For younger residents like Marla Coleen, 21, adding liquor licenses will improve the borough.

“You’ll have a liquor license, you’ll have controls,” she said. “We don’t have any place to go in this town; I think it's so unfair. I don’t know where [prohibiting licenses] stemmed from — religious reasons or whatever.”

But not everyone is thrilled that New Providence is moving into the 21st century. Gloria Pickton, who has lived in town since 1971, calls the passage of the liquor license referendum “bittersweet.” While Pickton said she would prefer that the town honor its roots by staying "dry," she said she "would rather stay here in New Providence” to go out for dinner and drinks, and hopes that the new era in the borough will reinvigorate a business community that she says has too many empty storefronts.

“This is unbelievable. We had a shoe store, we had a dress store, and we had a beautiful gift shop [called] RSVP. We had a beautiful florist,” she said. “And then we had a book store, we had a bridal shop in the '70s. It was beautiful. We used to have a Blouse Town – that was a ladies' store.”

Rose Wippich, who has lived in New Providence for eight years with her husband, Brian, and their twin boys, echoes the sentiments of many borough residents, who would rather see residents of neighboring towns come to New Providence to eat and shop, instead of the other way around.

"Although we have nice restaurants in New Providence," she said, "one way to attract more people is by attracting more high-end restaurants to set up shop.

“I know that there is a concern about drunk driving. People are driving through here like that from other towns,” Wippich said. “Hopefully people will stay local, they won’t drive, and they’ll be responsible and just go home. But I think it will be great for business and market our town. It’s a beautiful town, it’s just a little dull compared to Summit or Westfield, and I think we have so much potential. We’re just not doing anything about it and I think this will help.”

Like many in the borough's business community, Wippich said she has grown tired of seeing retailers come and go. She hopes that this evolution in the borough will attract new restaurants and will increase foot traffic around town, which could then lure new retailers to New Providence.

“People like to go out and eat. I think it will definitely help our little economy here and give our town better exposure and attract more people, more restaurants, more people from out of town,” she said. “Hopefully that will even help improve the real-estate market, which was never really bad here, but I think it will help maintain or increase the values of our homes… making it a more desirable town to live in.”

And newer residents like Ginger Green agree that liquor licenses are a good idea to have in the borough.

"It would be great to get some nice restaurants in the downtown,” Green said. “It would be very convenient not to have to drive too far."

Still, there were 720 dissenting residents who voted against the referendum and they're not afraid to say they like New Providence just as it always has been.

“Where are they going to put a bar in here?” asked voter Kari Prunier, who was at the Municipal Center polling station in the last general election. “There are so many empty stores right now. We don’t need any more traffic in town.”

Stan Dunn, the co-owner of , which was opened and owned by Mr. Alex Madonna and Mr. Frank Mae in the 1940s, said he has been a resident of New Providence for 25 years and one request from some residents in town is having an upscale restaurant in New Providence. But he doesn’t think it’s necessary.

“Summit is only a mile away. Berkeley Heights is less than a mile away. Chatham is a mile away and you can get down to Route 22 in probably less than two miles. There are loads of places you can go for an upscale restaurant that has a license,” he said. “I think [allowing liquor licenses in the borough] is a mistake. I like us being a little bit unique.”

Beginning of the End?

As a taxpayer, Dunn said he fears a liquor license or two could lead to trouble. He wants to know who'll protect New Providence from itself.

“I don’t think there’s any question about it. Once you have people wandering around and drinking... as much as they want to say it’s just going to be alcohol in a restaurant, what’s to prevent someone or a group of people going in, sitting down, having an appetizer, a dessert and then sitting there and drinking for two or three hours? That’s a hard thing to prevent,” Dunn said.

Scott Torre, the New Providence Deputy Police Chief, begs to differ.

“Of course it’s going to increase our work. If we open a restaurant with a bar in town, we have to assign an ABC officer here in New Providence and every year, they have to do background checks, not only on the owners of the establishments, but on every employee,” Torre said. “It’s time-consuming and it’s going to place additional demands on us, but I guess it remains to be seen how much of a demand it’s going to be. We’re hoping to be able to handle it… and if we’re unable to, we’ll address that at a later time. At this point, we’re not planning on increasing the size of our organization as a result of this ordinance being passed.”

Torre said he polled the police chiefs in Berkeley Heights and Summit regarding alcohol-related mayhem and was stunned by what he heard — in a good way.

“Berkeley Heights gave me a statistical analysis for an eight-year period," he said. "They had their typical, occasional drunk driver or drunk customer at the business that had to be handled, but it wasn’t as overwhelming as I thought it would be. I thought every week, there would be at least one or two, and that wasn’t the case. Over an eight-year period, it was fairly infrequent and it was something I was surprised about. The Summit Police Chief did tell me that they didn’t have a lot of incidents at their bars.”

Torre said he believes the infrequent calls reflect the kinds of restaurants and bars he expects to see open in New Providence.

“If you look at Summit, they have the , ; every establishment they have—they are all high-end businesses. They’re not places where people are going to get drunk and drive away. It’s a place where people go to have dinner and have a couple cocktails with dinner,” Torre said. “If you look at the establishments in Berkeley Heights, they have , which is a beautiful place, and they have . They are all really nice, high-end places, and I don’t think they typically have a lot of problems at those establishments.”

Torre said he doesn't expect trouble because the owners of a bar or restaurant serving alcohol will have paid at least $300,000 for a license and will do anything to protect their investment.

“For the establishment itself, it’s in their best interest to monitor how people are acting and make sure that everything is on the up-and-up with their business,” he said.

State Alcoholic Beverage Control spokesman Zach Hosseini said while the ABC does share dual jurisdictions with the municipalities, it's rare for the ABC to get involved in enforcement.

“The local authorities generally handle everything,” Hosseini said. “The town, as the issuing authority for the licenses, does have the option to revoke, suspend or not renew a license. [Our director rules on] any appeals to those decisions by the licensees.”

Twice a year, Hosseini said the ABC offers classes to local authorities on how to deal with ABC related issues like conducting background checks, clerk training, administrative law, and certain quality of life issues.

Now What?

Clearly most New Providence residents agree that the borough needs a plan to fill its many empty storefronts, including six within the Village Shopping Center, the old A&P location on Central Avenue, and a few along Springfield Avenue and South Street.

Joe Savino, owner of , was also the original Chairman of the New Providence Downtown Improvement District, said the organization commissioned an informal study several years ago and liquor topped the list of necessary ingredients to spice up the town, but residents weren't ready to support the plan.

“It was the chicken or the egg. Do we make the downtown look nice and hope businesses come, or do we attract more businesses and then be able to afford the Streetscape Project, which is what we did with the streets,” Savino said. “Then in our discussions, we determined that having liquor licenses would be vital or be extremely helpful in trying to get restaurants and better-quality restaurants into town. With restaurants comes night activity, with night activity comes people we call ‘walking wallets,’ and eventually you would get retail stores that would accommodate the hours of when the restaurants would bring people into town.”

In June, Gary Kapner wrote a  on behalf of the New Providence Business and Professional Association and the New Providence Downtown Improvement District to support using the licenses as tools to drive economic development in the borough.

“Our downtown property and business owners made a significant investment in the streetscape, saving taxpayers from the burden of higher taxes for improvements to our business district,” Kapner wrote in his letter. “Why not help them by trying to create more evening and weekend commercial activity in our downtown?  A vibrant downtown leads to less vacant retail space and the renovation of existing buildings. This over time can help create a higher commercial tax base.” 

When asked why he thinks this referendum passed this time around, Savino said the demographics in town have changed.

“I think people understand the value of having nicer restaurants in the community,” he said. “A thriving downtown community helps lower the residents’ tax dollars. Taxes in this town are high and the tax base, because of the retail area, is essentially shrinking with the vacant stores, the tax burden has switched in the direction of the residents and we’ve done a lot of talking about trying to get the downtown revived because that will ultimately make the house values higher and lower the taxes, and I think that message is slowly getting across and I think having liquor licenses will help.”

Business owners finally got on board, the elected officials followed and residents beat back 60 years of dissent to support the "we need a drink" platform. Marvin said it is the Borough Council’s intent to take formal action in January to prove that New Providence is ready for a change, one step at a time. When that first restaurant hires its first bartender, they all will raise a glass, full of whatever they choose, and toast John Calvin, who could probably use a cocktail right now too.

—Liz Alterman and John De Bellis contributed to this article.