WINDSOR — Three proposals to ease restrictions on the sale of alcoholic beverages in businesses in town are on tap for a public hearing Saturday.

Voters will then belly up to the polls to decide on them on June 11.

Town rules currently don’t allow restaurants or other businesses in Windsor to sell liquor for consumption on their premises.

Two of the three proposals up for discussion at a public hearing at 10 a.m. Saturday at Windsor Elementary School would allow restaurants or other licensed establishments to sell liquor to be consumed on their premises. One proposal would allow it to be sold every day of the week other than Sundays, while the other also would allow liquor sales on Sundays.

Currently no restaurants in town — which include a diner and take-out-style dining — serve liquor.

A couple of residents, however, have petitioned the town successfully to ask residents to approve liquor to be sold for on-site consumption, according to Town Manager Theresa Haskell.

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The petitioners, according to selectmen’s meeting minutes, were Antoinette Turner and James Roby. They told selectmen they wanted the change because they had someone looking into purchasing land and buildings in town to open a “farm-to-table” restaurant in Windsor. Turner and Roby couldn’t be reached immediately for comment Thursday.

“They said someone is interested in a building here in town, to open a restaurant,” Haskell said.

The third proposal would allow stores in Windsor to sell beer and wine on Sundays. Apparently unbeknownst to both town and state officials, a law on the town’s books appears to ban the sale of beer and wine from stores, for consumption off premises, on Sundays in Windsor.

Haskell said stores in Windsor have been given licenses from the state to sell malt liquor, beer and wine, including on Sundays, for years now, despite an apparent vote in the 1970s banning the practice.

She said a state official contacted town officials and said they needed to look at the issue of whether stores could sell beer and wine on Sundays. Haskell said they did, and it appears residents voted down a 1974 proposal that would have authorized the sale of beer and wine on Sundays.

All three proposals go to voters on a secret ballot June 11, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Windsor Town Hall.

Town Meeting is scheduled for the following day, at 6:30 p.m. June 12, also at Town Hall.


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