BY VINAYA SAKSENA

CUMBERLAND — The town council voted unanimously Wednesday to approve an extended hours license request for a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through facility at a Shell gasoline location on Mendon Road that had previously sparked concern on the council.

Before the council that night were two requests from the franchise owners of the doughnut shop. One would allow the store to expand its business hours, while the other would allow its host store, Cumberland Shell, to do the same. Both were approved, but with conditions by the council on Wednesday night.
Dennis and Demetrius Sampalis, who co-own the doughnut franchise, said they were seeking to expand the business’ hours from their former 6 a.m. to midnight hours, allowing them to open one hour earlier, at 5 a.m. The extended hours license allowing this was approved by the council in a unanimous vote, but not without conditions.
Some council members expressed concern about noise made by the drive-up intercom to be used by customers to order food and coffee.
“I think it’s a lot harder to take something away that you’ve already given,” Councilwoman Kelley Morris cautioned her colleagues before a vote was taken.
Fellow council member Jeffrey Mutter noted that another Dunkin’ Donuts store had opened in Cumberland without being able to use its drive-through intercom that early in the morning. He said this had been beneficial in some ways, showing consideration for neighbors, and asked the franchise owners if operating in this manner would be a deal breaker for their business.
“We will lose customers,” Dennis Sampalis responded. “We believe seventy percent of our customers are drive-through.”
Council President James Higgins pointed out that the concession that had been suggested to the owners was that they refrain only from using the intercom before 6 a.m.
The applicants indicated that this could adversely affect their business due to the high volume of early morning customers, many of whom they said were on their way to work and thus relied on the convenience of a drive-up window.
A public hearing was held on the matter, during which two residents who said they lived near the store indicated that they did not have a problem with the drive-up facility being operated their early in the morning. No residents spoke against the license request.
An extended hours request was approved by the council that night for Cumberland Shell’s other operations, with the exception of a car wash. The request to expand the doughnut shop’s hours was approved, albeit on the condition that the council not receive complaints from neighbors regarding noise from the intercom, a condition the applicants seemed agreeable to.
“Absolutely,” Dennis Sampalis said. “If we got a lot of complaints, we would put a sign up saying ‘come to the window to order.’”