A new brew pub located just across the street from the Hattiesburg city limits will go to 10th District Chancery Court Oct. 9-10 to see if it can sell alcoholic beverages after a court-ordered deadline to resolve the issue passed.
The Lamar County Board of Supervisors filed a last-minute complaint against Conway’s Family Pub’s petition for inclusion into Hattiesburg so that it could sell alcoholic beverages.
The Board of Supervisors, represented by Hattiesburg attorneys Tim C. Holleman and Patrick T. Guild, filed its objection before the May 21 hearing on the inclusion petition. R. Andrew Foxworth, the Columbia attorney representing Joshua Lon Mathis in the inclusion petition, said he did not become aware of the objection until that morning.
Tenth District Chancery Court Judge M. Ronald Doleac received the motions in the William J. “Pete” Gamble III Chancery Courthouse in Purvis and set aside two days to hear the issue.
The owners of the business – listed as Mathias and James H. Sorrells in legal documents – have filed a notice that they plan to apply for a liquor permit. The notice was published in The Hattiesburg Post on July 19, and anyone who requests a hearing on the permit must seek one in writing to the state Department of Revenue.
The property in question is owned by Hattiesburg real estate developer Darian Pierce, who is building The Colony at Turtle Creek Crossing gated community and Conway’s Family Pub. Pierce, president of Pierce Realty, Inc., is building five star-shaped structures of five Carriage Houses in each cluster at 5173 W. Fourth St.
“I have had some opposition,” Pierce said after the inclusion petition was filed. “I hope that people see how this would benefit the area.”
According to the response filed by the Lamar County Board of Supervisors, “The proposed inclusion of the territory into the City of Hattiesburg is not reasonable and a public convenience and necessity would not be served by the inclusion of the territory in the City of Hattiesburg.”
In another of the nine affirmative defenses of the response, the Supervisors claim, “The citizens of Lamar adjoining the area sought to be included expressed to their elected Supervisors their objections to the same.”
The Lamar County Board of Supervisors also demanded that the action should be dismissed and that all costs should be assessed against Mathias “and for any such other general relief to which it may be entitled.”
The Hattiesburg City Council has voted not to object to the petition that would allow the property to be included into the city limits. Attorney Jerry Mills of Mills, Scanlon, Dye and Pittman – who is representing the City of Hattiesburg – offered no objection to the petition.
Mathias of Lamar County filed the inclusion complaint March 29 in Lamar County Chancery Court as the only qualified elector living on the property. According to the plat drawing included with the complaint, the unincorporated portion includes two parcels owned by Pierce Family Holdings LLC of 3.5 acres and 11.34 acres.
Conway’s Family Pub, which will be housed in the structure now standing on the Fourth Street site, is named after St. Fabian Catholic Church’s Father Tommy Conway.
Conway’s Family Pub will have a full menu of choices for every meal, any time of the day.
Amenities at The Colony are expected to include exercise, walking paths, gardening, yoga and proximity to the Longleaf Trace.
Each Carriage House contains five private residential units. The residential units have two bedrooms, a private bath, kitchen, dining area, living room and a covered porch with a fenced backyard.
