HUDSON – Several representatives of local Hudson businesses attended the Aug. 21 Select Board meeting with the same goal: to voice their concerns about the proposed changes to the regulations regarding the sale of tobacco products.
In an Aug. 18 email, Director of Public and Community Health Lauren Antonelli noted, on behalf of the Board of Health (BOH) Chair Michael Delfino, that most of the major changes are “state required.”
There were representatives from Bacon’s Wine and Spirits, the Shell station on Main Street, and Quality Gas to support the collective concerns, but Brian and Tony Buscemi of Buscemi’s Convenience Beer & Wine mainly spoke about the issues they had with the draft update of BOH regulations.
“We’re here to voice our concerns about how the Hudson Board of Health keeps making regulations that have a dramatic negative impact on the 21 businesses that have tobacco licenses,” Brian said.
Brian spoke about the history of regulation changes, including raising the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products to 21 in 2018 and banning the sale of flavored tobacco products in 2022. These decisions were made a year and six months, respectively, before the state laws changed, he said.
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“This made it impossible for us to sell our current inventory,” Brian said. “Hudson businesses lost thousands of dollars in sales.”
In addition, he said sales went to surrounding towns as a result because “people are just going to the next town over.” When Tony asked the BOH about the decision, he said the reasons given were that the board was able to do it and that lives would be saved due to the health effects of tobacco.
As he believed people are not going to just stop smoking, Brian said, “All it’s doing is hurting businesses.”
He expressed concern that no impacted businesses were notified about the Aug. 14 BOH meeting about the restrictions to tobacco sales.
“I found out from one of my customers,” Brian said. “We should be notified if there’s any hearings that are going to impact our business.”
He believed there are key issues that had “the potential to put some of us out of business,” like a new fining structure. He said if a business violates BOH regulations, the fines are $1,000 and a permit suspension for up to 30 days for a first offense, $2,000 and up to a 45-day suspension for a second one and $5,000 and up to a 60-day suspension.
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For comparison, in the current regulations the first three violations carry fines of $100, $200 and $300, with the first violation having no suspension included and the second and third having seven- and 30-day suspensions.
“If we could not sell tobacco products for 30 days, it could put us out of business. It’s 25% of our business,” Brian said.
As a business is a family’s livelihood, he said they do not want to sell to minors and try to prevent it with proper training for hires.
Another issue was the fact the tobacco license would not transfer to the new owner, like a liquor license. It would go to the first person on the waiting list for one of the only 21 tobacco licenses allowed in Hudson.
Brian said he was told this change was made in 2015, but he added that the current language says there is a 60-day window from the sale for the new owner to apply for the permit.
While the number of licenses would not change, he said it is “going to destroy the resale value of our businesses for small family-owned businesses.”
It could impact the ability to sell the business, which for some provides a retirement fund, he said.
Tony believed the current 21 businesses should be grandfathered in as some owners bought their stores, and “we paid money for our license.”
He added, “We have investments in our business.”
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Brian asked the Select Board and Executive Assistant Thomas Gregory if there was anything they could do or if they had any suggestions for next steps.
Select Board Chair Scott Duplisea said “We, as a Select Board, … don’t have the allwheeling authority” to overrule another board.
Duplisea said they are here to listen to citizens about their concerns. He added it is “important to all of us” to hear from small business owners.
Antonelli said the BOH accepted written testimony until Aug. 28 and at the Sept. 12 meeting would review testimony and vote on the proposed regulations.
Duplisea suggested that Brian send his concerns and comments to the BOH by the Aug. 28. deadline.
Duplisea said, “I think the Board of Health has some work to do.”
Select Board Clerk Judy Congdon said that it was evident there were other businesses that did not know about the proposed regulation changes and said the BOH should not “be going above and beyond what the state regulations are” by adding suspensions for violations.
She urged them to put their concerns into writing to the BOH.
