More than half the counties in Arkansas don’t allow the packaged sale of alcohol and require special permits with strict rules for private clubs that want to sell alcohol on their premises.
Voters in two counties and one unincorporated community will get the chance to say whether they want the sale of alcohol to be allowed in the Nov. 2 election.
Boone County in Northwest Arkansas, Clark County in southwest Arkansas and Mountain township in Logan County in the northwest already have started collecting people’s opinions duringhigh turnouts of early voters.
In Clark County, election signs speckle the highways. Bright yellow placards and billboards in people’s yards proclaim, “Vote no to the sale of alcohol,” while other banners and billboards tell people to “Vote for growth” or “Keep the money local.”
The issue of whether to allow alcohol sales is divisive for many Clark County residents. So far, the early voting turnout for this midterm election rivals the turnout for the 2008 presidential election, said Clark County Clerk Rhonda Cole.
“Our early voting numbers are coming close to that2008 election,” Cole said. “Between Aug. 2 and the Oct. 4 deadline, we had 616 new voters register, which is a high number for us, especially in a non-presidential election year.”
The issue of whether to allow alcohol sales isn’t new to Clark County, but being able to cast a ballot on the matter is. The county became dry in the 1940s, and efforts have been made to get a ballot question over alcohol sales several times since.
Most recently, in 2008, a petition to add alcohol sales to the ballot went all the way to the Arkansas Supreme Court. The court overruleda lower court’s decision, and said several hundred petition signatures were invalid because they were obtained on the same day those people registered to vote. State election law would have required that the signatures be obtained at least one day after voter registration.
The move to get the question on the ballot this year began shortly after that decision. Supporters collected more than 6,000 signatures, of which 4,898 were accepted as valid, Cole said.
Tim Kauffman, with the Vote for Growth in Clark County committee, said the group supports the move because of what it would mean for sales receipts that make their way out of the county when vacationers or locals go out of the county.
“We’re losing $104 million a year leaked out of county on groceries, alcohol, gas … all spent outside of the county,” Kauffman said. “I can’t promise what’s going to happen, but places that gone from dry to wet in the past have seen businesses come and local sales grow slowly.”
Both Kauffman’s group and the opposition, Keep Clark County Dry, argue that their side is the way to help Clark County grow.
Frank Teed, who supports the dry argument, said he’s spoken to economists and businesses that say alcohol is not the answer to promoting economic development.
“Companies don’t care whether you allow the sale of alcohol or not when they’re considering moving into a county,” Teed said. “In the last 20 years, we have lost eight or nine key industries. What we need to do is grow and get to replacing those industries. It’s not about alcohol sales, it’s about attracting industry.”
He argued that the negative affects - including increased crime, accidents and the possible affect on young people - would outweigh any possible benefits. Almost 5,000 students attend Henderson State University and Ouachita Baptist University, both in Arkadelphia. Teed’s group will hold town hall meetings at the universities Tuesday evening.
One meeting is at 5 p.m. in Henderson State University’s Garrison Center Auditorium, while the other meeting is at 7 p.m. in Ouachita Baptist University’s Mabee Fine Arts Center Auditorium.
Kaufmann said college students already have access to alcohol through bootleggers.
“But bootleggers don’t check IDs, and stores with licenses would have to check them,” he said. “Ultimately I want the people to have the opportunity to vote on it. If they choose to stay dry, I’ll live with it.”
In Boone County, Harrison Mayor Pat Moles has said heexpects a heavy voter turnout because of the wet/dry issue.
One of Moles’ opponents, businessman Jeff Crockett, led the charge behind the liquor issue, while Moles and a third candidate, Alderman Wayne Cone, have stayed neutral.
Crockett said the county already has private clubs where alcohol by the drink can be sold.
“We’re trying to legalize sales of alcohol in Boone County because it’s already here,” said Crockett, chairman of Citizens for the Future of Boone County.
If the initiative passes, Crockett said he will immediately begin working on getting voter approval to allow permits under which businesses can sell alcohol without being a private club.
In Logan County, voters in Mountain township also will be asked to decide on whether they want liquor sales in their community.
There are 102 registered voters in Mountain, said Logan County Clerk Peggy Fitzgerald. The unincorporated community is just a few miles from other towns that do allow alcohol sales, such as Paris. It’s also not far from the Lodge at Mount Magazine.
The drive to allow alcohol started with the owners of onerestaurant in the community, Shirley’s Outback. Attorney Eric Danielson represents the restaurant owners and helped submit the petition.
“The state of Arkansas is permitted to sell alcohol at the lodge on the mountain, and Paris is allowed to sell alcohol at restaurants,” Danielson said. “My client would like to be able to compete with those establishments.”
There was a previous push for alcohol sales in the 1990s that was able to get the question on the ballot, but voters opted to have a dry community. Danielson said he’s heard some opposition in the community, but the group turned in 43 signatures on a petition supporting the sale of alcohol.
Since the petition was turned in, Fitzgerald said 12 voters were removed from the voting precinct because their addresses were outside the limits, and six new voters have registered. She said the adjustments did not result from a complaint from a challenge to the petition or take into consideration which side of the issue the voters were on, but corrected existing errors.
Information for this article was contributed by Adam Wallworth of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 17 on 10/24/2010