HATFIELD — Owners of two Hatfield businesses will be able to expand their offerings to visitors after receiving new licenses from the Select Board this week.
Old Mill Inn at 87 School St. is getting an on-premise, all-alcohol license, while Black Birch Vineyard at 108 Straits Road is getting an entertainment license.
At the historic inn, Bill Wooldridge and Justin Killeen, who purchased the 12-room building earlier this year, the idea is to be able to offer guests bottles of wine, and eventually build a small bar that could be used by both guests and the public until 9 p.m.
“We see it more as kind of like what you would have in a hotel,” Wooldridge said.
Wooldridge said he and Killeen spent the first part of their ownership freshening up the building with new paint and furnishings. Since its reopening in mid-May, they have already rented out rooms for guests attending local weddings.
As the owners move through the first season, learning as they go, as Wooldridge puts it, they will solidify plans, though the intent is to primarily run the site as an inn.
Killeen said they do want to showcase the beautiful property. “As we move forward, we’d love to have the public in, not just travelers,” Killeen said
Select Board Chairman Diana Syznal said the site has “endless potential.”
Already bringing in area residents is Black Birch Vineyard, where concerts managed by Signatures Sounds are taking place on Sunday evenings through the end of June.
The Select Board issued its owners an entertainment license that allows these concerts to continue to be held from noon to 9 p.m.
Michelle Kersbergen, who co-owns Black Birch, told the board that she is speaking to the Planning Board about revising the original special permit issued in 2017. That limits the hours of operation for the tasting room to noon to 6 p.m., though the tasting room closes at 5 p.m. on Sundays.
No additional events that would be covered by the entertainment license are scheduled for the summer months yet, Kersbergen said.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
