Nearly 40 years of service to the community of Coaldale will end today when the state liquor store in that borough closes its doors for the last time.

The store has been operated for the past 30 years by John P. Davies, who will be transferred to the Tamaqua state store where he will become the assistant manager.

A state law requiring ramps for the handicapped was one of the that was a major factors involved in the closing of the store. Davies said the state apparently didn’t think it was worth investing the money required to update the store at the building that was built in 1910.

In its peak in the late 1940s, the store sold about 80,000 bottles of liquor annually but that figure has dropped to abut 30,000 annually in recent years.