File:Smoketown Brewing Station 2019 from The Frederick News Post, March 31, 2019.jpg

Summary

Smoketown Brewing Station owner puts event plans on hold

   By Heather Mongilio for The Frederick News-Post, March 31, 2019

Photo by Bill Green

When Dave Blackmon opened Smoketown Brewing Station in 2014, the plan always included reopening the community hall/event space above the brewery.

The community hall in the old fire hall was once a lively spot in Brunswick, where Duke Ellington once played and Patsy Cline graced the stage with Roy Clark and Jimmy Dean. Blackmon’s goal was to reopen it as a venue for community events, weddings and small concerts.

But the plans have been put permanently on hold, he said, due to difficulties with the county’s permitting office.

Last year, a county inspector approved Blackmon’s plan for the space, noting that he had enough exits to house up to 299 people in the community hall space without sprinklers, Blackmon said. Then the inspector retired.

The new inspector said the property would be recognized as a new building, therefore it needed to comply with 2019 code, Blackmon said. That initially meant an alarm system, to which Blackmon agreed. But less than 24 hours later, the county permitting office came back and said he would need to install a sprinkler system in order to have the 299 person capacity, he said.

“We have more of an issue of the county not accepting this for what it is and has always been,” Blackmon said.

The required sprinkler system would set Blackmon back at least $100,000, an amount he does not have. He has already put at least $500,000 into the brewery and the community hall, he said.

There’s also a lack of trust of the county permitting office, he said.

“I think even if I put the sprinkler system in, I’ll just get shut down for another reason,” Blackmon said.

The community hall was built in 1948 as part of a new fire station, Blackmon said. Besides hosting concerts, the space was used for banquets, bingo night and roller derby. The space’s floor still has the markings of the derby’s ring.

His idea was to restore the space, which had gone unused since at least 2010, to its former glory, with a couple of modifications. Blackmon wanted the space to be a community hall, he said.

“I joke with people it’ll be the biggest storage unit in Frederick County because that’s all it’ll be good for,” he said. Government code

The county is supportive of a plan to bring an event space to Brunswick, County Executive Jan Gardner said. But there are safety concerns that need to be met.

“We’d love to see the event space come,” Gardner said. “It’s very important for Brunswick.”

There has been a back and forth between the county government and Blackmon, she said. She thought he was planning to move forward.

“We have tried to work with Dave in good faith,” she said.

According to the county permitting office, there was only an inspection done of the space in 2013, for a space with a maximum occupancy of 49 people, said Gary Hessong, director of permits and inspections, in an email.

From the county’s perspective, there are only minor changes that need to be done for a community hall space with a maximum occupancy of 299, Hessong said in the email. The county met with Blackmon and the architect for the space about a month ago, he said in the email.

“Further, the request was to establish this occupancy without additional exits and without adding a sprinkler system. The County supported this request provided that a fire alarm and detection system be added and provided the second floor occupancy load was capped at 299 persons,” he said in the email.

If Blackmon planned to expand the event space into something that would support a nightclub atmosphere or concerts, he may need additional fire suppression and improvements, Hessong said in the email. It would depend on the space and if Blackmon wanted the maximum occupancy to increase to 1,000.

“We are very supportive of the adaptive reuse of this space in Brunswick and will continue to work in good faith so that whatever occupancy is established it is done so in a code compliant manner that will adequately protect the property, the occupants of the building as well those that may be responding in the event of an emergency,” Hessong said in the email.

For County Councilman Phil Dacey, there seems to be some problems with communication between Blackmon and the county. Dacey said the next step is to get everyone in the same room to discuss the sprinklers and other issues with the space.

Maryland Sen. Michael Hough (R-Carroll and Frederick) said the situation is an example of “strangulation by regulation.” He does not understand why one inspector passed the event space while the next said it needed the sprinkler system.

“It’s completely maddening,” he said.

This is on the county, Hough said. He pointed out that the building used to be a fire hall, which makes him think the building is safe when it comes to fires, he said. He used to go to the fire hall for dinners and said the building was probably less safe than before Blackmon did renovations that addressed asbestos and opened up more exits. Revitalizing Brunswick

One goal with the space and the brewery is to bring people to Brunswick, Blackmon said. People could come to the brewery or an event and then go out in downtown, where they might grab dinner or stop by one of the stores.

Blackmon moved to the Rosemont-Brunswick area in 2002 and saw the city as a diamond in the rough full of potential, he said. The city offers the Potomac River and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.

“Brunswick is not on the map yet,” Blackmon said. “Brunswick is not a place people go out of the way for.”

Brunswick needs more foot traffic, Dacey said. Despite its potential, there’s not a lot of draw to the area. It is one of the municipalities struggling the most, he said.

It is a shame about the community hall because it, along with the brewery, could be a catalyst for the town’s revitalization, he said. Dacey likened Smoketown to Frederick’s Brewer’s Alley, which he said helped define Frederick’s downtown.

Brunswick needs Smoketown, Hough said. Hough lives in Brunswick and represents the area.

It would be “devastating” if the area lost Smoketown, Hough said.

Blackmon’s current plan is to stay in Brunswick, he said, but he has a family and investors he has to keep safe. He has looked at other places to relocate if he cannot keep up a profit in the area.

He has looked at moving to Frederick, which would provide a bigger crowd. Or across the river to Loudoun County, which has been recruiting him for a couple years, he said.

“It’s just a shame because it was party central,” Blackmon said. “It was the biggest thing going on in Frederick County, and we can’t get it booted up again.”