The Board of Selectmen Tuesday approved the first three of eight full year-round liquor licenses made available to the town through special legislation.

Cranberry Highway restaurant Captain Al's, Onset's Stonebridge Bistro, and Marion Road restaurant China Garden, were first on the docket for Board of Selectmen approval. The licenses will now need to be approved on the state-level. The restaurants are currently operating under limited, seasonal liquor licenses.

"This legislation was a long time coming," said Town Administrator Mark Andrews, who thanked State Representative Susan Williams Gifford (R-Wareham) and State Senator Marc Pacheco (D-Taunton), for their help in getting the bill passed.

Supporters dubbed the legislation the "Wareham Jobs Bill" for the impact it could have on economic development and job creation.

The new liquor licenses are "above quota" for Wareham, and are earmarked for specific businesses or locations, as required by the legislative Joint Committee on Consumer Protection & Professional Licensure. The number of liquor licenses issued to a town is based on its population, and the town must request any licenses above the quota through legislation.

"We never thought you would ever be able to get those eight licenses for the Town of Wareham," admitted Alfred Harrington, owner of Captain Al's. "We're really surprised that you could pull that off, and we really appreciate it."

Stonebridge Bistro owner Justin Hadley echoed that sentiment during a hearing regarding his application. "I'm thankful that efforts have been made on your part to get these licenses for us," he told Andrews and the Selectmen.

The remaining licenses are reserved for Minerva's Pizzeria, Ella's Wood Burning Oven Restaurant, and restaurants at Wareham Crossing and A.D. Makepeace's Rosebrook Place development. Merchants Way on the Bay was originally included in the legislation, but it closed suddenly in April. That license will be designated for another Main Street restaurant.

The legislation hit a few snags since filed by Rep. Gifford, at the request of local officials, in 2007. The original bill sought 15 additional licenses for "economic development zones," with a certain number of licenses allocated for businesses in each "zone." After negotiations with the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection & Professional Licensure regarding the number of additional licenses sought, Town Meeting voted in April 2008 to try to obtain just eight licenses.

But the committee did not approve of the concept of assigning new licenses to zones, rather than to specific businesses, and argued that "zones" were too vague to justify issuing more liquor licenses for the town.

The town ultimately decided to assign the licenses to specific locations, and the bill was passed by the state House of Representatives and Senate in July.