EASTHAMPTON — The Pulaski Club is exploring options to reopen some three weeks after being denied liquor license renewal due to unpaid city property taxes.
At the Licensing Board’s Jan. 6 meeting, board members, shareholders of the club, Mayor Salem Derby and a Pulaski Club board member discussed potential options to get the Club’s license renewed.
“The Pulaski Club came to me and said they were pretty much ready to pay their taxes, but because the license was denied (by the Licensing Board), it (the license) was sent to the state,” Derby said at the Jan. 6 meeting. “It was denied there, so they can (now) apply for a late license.”
Pulaski Club board member Donald Carberry said at the meeting that the funds needed to pay off the owed property taxes have been obtained, but a pay-off plan needs to be made with the city.
The Licensing Board denied the Club’s liquor license renewal application at its Dec. 9 meeting due to approximately $36,000 in unpaid property taxes that date back to 2024.
Licensing Board member Anthony Karella told the Gazette that the board had to deny the license due to the unpaid property taxes, since the city has to follow state law.
At the Jan. 6 meeting, Licensing Board member Stephen Desaulniers said, “None of us wanted to vote against that at all,” referring to the board denying the liquor license renewal.
Derby explained at the meeting that after speaking with the Pulaski Club, he contacted the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission (ABCC). Derby said a representative of the ABCC told him that if the club applied for a late license, it is, “Probably the best course of action with the least amount of headache for everybody involved.”
At the meeting, Carberry said he was not the one in charge of paying the taxes on the board, but he was there to represent the club and plead its case.
“We have secured the funding available to us to make things good and right and the Club’s been here for over 100 years, it’s a very big part of the community,” Carberry said at the meeting.
The club, located at 79 Maple St., had operated for some 122 years as a Polish-based pub and entertainment hall, hosting events such as banquets, weddings and even wrestling matches. The club’s closure was announced on the Pulaski Club’s Facebook page, on Dec. 17.
Carberry said in the more than 100 years of operation, the club has hosted Jack and Jill’s, wakes and has worked effectively with the Community Center to host events. He said the club has been working with investors to organize donations. “It would be a big loss for this community if we had that (the Club) go,” he said.
In an interview with the Gazette, Carberry said the club’s board will meet soon with shareholders to make decisions and present several plans for the late liquor license renewal process.
Derby said as part of that process, the Club will have 30 days from the Jan. 6 meeting to present to the Licensing Board a plan of intent, which can involve monthly payments, and the board has the authority to accept or deny it.
“I think one of things that’s important here is that if the Licensing Board feels comfortable to allow this process to go forward, I think that the mechanism is in place for the Pulaski Club to be able to pay and then to submit a new application,” Derby said at the meeting.
The next Licensing Board Meeting will be on Feb. 2 at 4 p.m. in the Municipal Building.