We are starting this petition to convince the South Hadley Board of Health to issue either a new tobacco license or give back the existing license to Gagnes store at 460 Amherst Road, South Hadley (Now 3 Corners Package Store) and hear the voice of this community who needs a convenient store with the tobacco products. We were open only for 1 month and were forced to shut down the store. We bought this property last year and have renovated it inside out and restarted the convenience store last month. The people of this community/Neighborhood were extremely happy that they got their store opened up as they have tons of memories and they had to travel miles to get their bread, milk, drinks and cigarettes as there is no other store within 3 miles radius. We applied for all the licenses from the city and the state and were issued these licenses without a problem. We applied for the tobacco license to the Board Of Health, only to find out that there are only 11 tobacco licenses in the town of South Hadley and all have been issued to other stores, including the one Gagnes used to have when it was run by the previous owner (City recently reduced it to 11 licenses from 16 licenses). Gagnes had been selling the tobacco products for years before most of us were even born and Borad of Health could have easily grandfathered this license for its historical value. They have asked us to remove all the tobacco and cigarettes from the store which we removed. We were not able to survive the removal of tobacco and cigarettes as they are about 30-40% sales of a convenience store, plus it also affects other item sales.. There are no other convenient stores within the 3 miles radius of Gagnes and the people of this community have a great difficulty and inconvenience to travel miles to the other stores. Please help us get a new Tobacco license so that we can keep our doors open for the people of this neighborhood of South Hadley. We got 1000 likes as soon as we opened on the Facebook of the Chamber of Commerce last month.

We spoke to the Board of Health and only 3 of the 5 members of the board attended and decided for the thousands of people that they will not issue a new tobacco license neither will give back the existing license. The Board of Health has forced us to shut down. We also contacted the town adminitrator Lisa Wong but got no help either. We have spent our life's savings in this business and now we are closed. Is there any way we can get your help to request the board of health for the tobacco license.

Board Of Health Members who make the decision.

Johanna Ravenhurst Chair

Tony Judge Vice-Chair

Karen Walsh Pio Clerk

Christine McKiernan, M.D.

Jessica Collins

Town Administrator

Lisa Wong

Physical Address
116 Main Street
Room M2
South Hadley, MA 01075

Phone: 413-538-5030