You definitely didn’t have this on your BINGO card: Black Rock Brewing Co. in downtown Pottsville could be open business once again before the end of this year.
During a special meeting of City Council when the first reading of the 2025 budget was announced (and calls for a 3-mill tax hike), Black Rock’s owner Bobby Weaver Jr. used the public comment portion to address an email thread that had apparently been ongoing between he and City officials. The issue involved Weaver’s desire to have outdoor events during the winter at the still-closed business.
The conversation quickly devolved into a who’s right-who’s wrong back and forth that many following the story have heard a few too many times in recent months. But the increasingly tense exchange took a turn for the better during a rather lighthearted moment when Weaver asked Mayor Mark Atkinson to read an email he claimed to have sent about his outdoor event plans and needing an occupancy permit.
Atkinson looked at his phone and noticed that the email he said was sent was actually still in Draft. That moment seemed to open the door on a new direction for the once tense conversation.
With the conversation turned on a dime, Fire Chief Jim Misstishin repeated an offer he said he’s made to Weaver in the past: Go back to the original plans for Black Rock Brewing – the first floor open for business – and its original occupancy capacity.
Misstishin said the City will then conduct an inspection of the building and if it passes, would grant Weaver an occupancy permit to allow him to reopen.
“We’ll get you all the inspections you need and you’ll be open in a week or two,” Misstishin told Weaver.
Weaver wanted to make sure that his ongoing court actions against the City could still go on and the City agreed. In that, Weaver wants to get approval for plans to expand the business to the second floor of the cavernous former YWCA building on S. Centre St. That whole saga is now awaiting a court date before a Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas Judge.
“You could open on the first floor. If you want to continue to make the argument for the second floor, you can,” Atkinson said.
The issue really seemed to move even closer to a resolution when Councilman Andy Wollyung entered the chat Wednesday.
Wollyung said, “Frankly, everybody’s tired. We have bigger things that are going to be coming down the road that we want to focus on and I know our new Mayor wants to do that and all of us up here want to put it behind us. We don’t want to do this anymore. We don’t want to do this Black Rock-City Council show.
“Let’s get you open and we can all be happy together,” Wollyung added. “We want this behind us. We want you open. We want you to be doing business in our city.”
Weaver agreed and for a fleeting second, everyone forgot about the looming 3-mill tax increase … Well, maybe not.
Weaver tells The Canary that he will likely submit the original plans for the building and business by Monday at the latest. If and when the City conducts an inspection of the property, Weaver said he could be open in a week.
“I would love to actually sell a beer as opposed to giving it away in 2024,” he said when reached for comment Thursday.
This entire saga started in 2023 when a small kitchen fire prompted the City to close Black Rock Brewing. Since then, the two sides have been at loggerheads.
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