Lance Martin/Herald Senior Staff Writer

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GARYSBURG - The minister of a church whose family center was raided Saturday night after beer was illegally sold said the church will now use background checks to screen applicants who want to use the facility.

Pastor Franklin D. Williams said staff of Roanoke Chapel Baptist Church, which runs Mudcastle Family Life Center, met with Garysburg town officials including Mayor Roy Bell and Police Chief Raymond Vaughan.

“We just increased the line of communications,” Williams said Tuesday. “We want to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.”

Williams said tighter security was one of the topics along with background checks on future applicants, which will be done by the police department.

Tighter scrutiny will be applied in cases where alcohol will be served. The number of wedding receptions held at Mudcastle prohibits a total ban of alcohol, Williams said.

Williams believes the center, which offers after-school tutorial programs and provides summer jobs for youth, will survive the bad publicity. “I don't think Mudcastle's reputation has been tarnished at all. The biggest hit was probably on me.”

Williams explained he never told a state Alcohol Law Enforcement agent he was OK with beer being served at a party at Mudcastle Family Life Center, as an ALE agent was quoted as saying in Monday's Daily Herald.

Williams said he told ALE Agent Brandon Lanier he didn't see anything wrong with party promoter Ray Ramsey charging people $7 to get into the event, and when asked if he knew alcohol was being served, he responded by saying, “I really didn't know that.”

In addition, Williams said he told the agents to get the beer out of the building and let law enforcement deal with Ramsey.

Ramsey did not have an ABC permit for the event and he did not have one for Mudcastle, ALE Agent Brent Massey said in an e-mail.

Ramsey was cited for selling alcohol without a permit at Mudcastle, located off U.S. Highway 301.

Agents, along with the Garysburg Police Department and Northampton County Sheriff's Office, seized approximately 527 bottles and cans of beer at the event, which was held in conjunction with the New Planet Entertainment Bike Rally earlier in the day at Edwards Beach at Lake Gaston.

Approximately 2,500 to 5,000 bikers attended the rally. The party at Mudcastle, which is a community development corporation run by Roanoke Chapel Baptist Church, was the site of the rally's after-party.

Advertisements beckoned rally attendees to “come get their drink on at Mudcastle” for the after-party at the facility. Radio DJs also advertised the event at Mudcastle saying party-goers could drink all they could.