Despite the Westbrook Municipal Officers’ decision to deny a liquor license to reopen the Skybox Bar and Grill, the fate of the Brown Street bar is now in the hands of the state.

Brown Street resident Allen Moore has appealed to the state’s Liquor Licensing and Compliance Division in the Department of Public Safety, according to Jeff Austin, supervisor of the division.

Austin said he received a letter from Moore this week stating his intent to appeal the city’s decision. Austin said he’s still waiting on some paperwork from Moore, and as soon as he receives that, he’ll schedule a public hearing.

“We’ll probably get right on it,” he said about the hearing, which will be held in Westbrook in front of a panel of state employees, including Austin, Lt. David Bowler, commander of the Special Investigations Unit, and an assistant attorney general.

The Municipal Officers, which include the city councilors and the mayor, voted 3-3 not to approve Moore’s liquor license application on Aug. 4, with councilors Brendan Rielly, Dotty Aube and John O’Hara opposed. The officers also voted not to approve Moore’s amusement permit, though they did grant him licenses to serve food and have a pool room and pinball.

Moore has until Sept. 4 to appeal the amusement permit to the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals, according to City Clerk Lynda Adams. Moore had not yet filed an appeal for the amusement permit with the city by American Journal deadline and did not return calls to say whether he planned to do so.

Councilors cited past problems with having a bar at that location, which resulted in calls for service to police, as the reason for denying the licenses to Moore – the same reasons they denied previous owners Tom and Ellen Dore in March.

Moore said his plan for Skybox was different from what had been there in the past, with the focus on happy hours and live entertainment, but not enough of the officers were swayed to give Moore a chance, prompting him to turn to the state.

O’Hara said Tuesday that he believed Moore had every intention of running a reputable business, but said he believes it’s a “very tall task,” and, though it may run smoothly for a while, it will eventually return to the same type of establishment it’s been in the past. O’Hara said as long as he’s on the City Council, he won’t support a bar in that location.

“I wish him the best of luck,” O’Hara said.

The Dores, too, had an opportunity to appeal to the state within 15 days of receiving written denial of their liquor license from the city, but they said, at the time, that they were tired of fighting the same battle with city officials every year.

In 1999, when the bar was known as Andy’s Tavern, the City Council denied a renewal to owner Jerry King, who did appeal to the state. After a public hearing, the state approved the license over the city’s rejection.

This time around, O’Hara said, he thinks the city is on “as solid footing as we’ve ever been” to keep the license from being granted, because the business has been dormant for several months and, during that time, the criminal activity in the immediate area has dispersed, as Police Chief Bill Baker said earlier this month.

Rielly agreed, saying that he hopes the state respects the decision of city officials, who know best what’s going on in the area. He said he is “optimistic given the track record” of the bar that the state will do just that.

And if they don’t, Rielly said, “then I don’t know what you have to do to get a liquor license denied.”

“We’ll do our best to monitor and keep a close eye on it, and, if need be, deny again,” he said.

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