[chipj29]

I know I sound like I have some sort of involvement with the way I am defending the new rest areas, but believe me I have none. I live pretty close to both, and the NB store is my go-to liquor store. They are not in my town so they won’t impact my property taxes. I just hope they succeed, and I think they will.

With that said, I stopped by the NB rest area last night. First of all, they built and just opened a new parking lot directly in front of the liquor store. That lot alone is the size of the previous parking lot. It is pretty big. And there is more parking around the far end of the store, not to mention the parking lot that is not yet complete adjacent to the gas pumps. And there is more parking in the back (only accessible from Rt 3A) for those of us not on the highway side. There used to only be about 20 spaces back there, and would get pretty crowded, but there is way more than that now.

On my way in to the rest room, I took a walk through the convenience store. The prices are identical (yes, identical) to the prices at the Irving station convenience store at Exit 10 and the one at Exit 12. That included beer, chips/snacks and cigarettes. I am sure some items (such as the souveniers) are marked up, but I would expect that.

I stopped by the info desk and asked if that was permanent. I got a laugh. They are moving into a bigger space in the restaurant/open area when it is ready.

As far as the rest rooms, I counted 7 stalls and 8 urinals (sorry I didn’t go into the ladies room). Compare that size to the old one that had 4 urinals and 3 stalls. So it is double the size.

So I don’t get the naysayers, but hey we all have our opinion.