Owner of Wareham’s Getty gas station denied tobacco permit due to bylaw restriction

Sep 5, 2018

Town bylaws on tobacco forced the Wareham Board of Health to deny a sales license on Wednesday, Sept. 5, for the currently closed Getty Gas Station on Main Street, near the Wareham Fire Department. 

The station, owned by Sam Mohamed, has undergone more $80,000 worth of renovations in order to reopen. Mohamed previously held a tobacco sales license for the station which expired back in 2016 while Mohamed was hospitalized for a broken leg.

Town bylaws state that only 37 licenses for tobacco sales are permitted within Wareham. This bylaw came with further stipulations which raised the age to buy cigarettes in order to combat smoking.

A total of 40 licenses were grandfathered in which Mohamed said should have included him. 

Mohamed said that he had planned to reopen the Getty Station before the bylaw was passed, but was urged to wait by town officials.

“They told me Main Street was going to become a one-way street, so I waited,” Mohamed said. “But that never happened, and then I was in the hospital. I never received a notice from anyone telling me I had to renew.”

Mohamed currently holds a tax revenue permit from the state to sell tobacco products, but was ultimately overruled by the town.

“To award a 41st license, we’d have to change town bylaws,” said Board of Health Chairman Amy Wiegandt. “It’s not impossible.”

The decision was ultimately made to put Mohamed on a waiting list for an available tobacco sales license. In the meantime, Mohamed will transfer a sales license from the nearby Joe’s Gas, also on Main St., to the Getty Station. 

An opening date for the Getty Station was not specified.