Residents of Cherokee County have always voted down the alcohol sales referendum, but after the latest session of the Alabama Legislature, some cities in that county have the option of holding their own municipal referendum.
And Cedar Bluff is already preparing for a wet/dry election, said Dan Ireland, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP). Ireland, who met with local leaders June 30, is helping organize an effort to defeat the upcoming attempt to legalize alcohol sales.
Ireland anticipates an August election, but he noted a petition must be signed by 25 percent of the registered voters who voted in the last general election in Cedar Bluff before an election can be held.
Wendell Dutton, director of missions for Lookout Mountain Baptist Association, said the new law and potentional wet/dry election will affect part of his association.
“The county seat, Centre, is dry and has never held a referendum,” Dutton noted. “In the past the county has held a countywide vote, and it’s always defeated, so this is still a dry county.”
Dutton is concerned that Cedar Bluff will go wet since it is a resort area. “A lot of people from out of the state go there and are used to having liquor,” he said. “However, if you look at it even from a pro-wet viewpoint, it
wouldn’t generate enough income to be beneficial to the town.”
Dutton said he doesn’t think the alcohol sales would pay for the income for cleaning up the problems created.
“If you approach it from a common sense view, it doesn’t add up financially,” he said. “It doesn’t generate enough income to outweigh cleaning up the messes, drunk drivers and more people jailed.”
Dutton also said he is concerned about the moral implications this bill brings.
“The downside is devastation and brokenness that results from [alcohol],” he said.
While the bill affecting Cherokee County became law during this year’s legislative session, which ended June 16, another bill dealing with alcohol sales did not.
House Bill 512 would have lowered the population needed to hold an alcohol sales vote from 7,000 to 5,000 for a city in a dry county.
The bill passed the Alabama Legislature but was not signed by Gov. Bob Riley. He had until June 26 to sign the bill or let it die with what is termed a pocket veto.
Ireland also noted victories in the area of gambling and smoking.
Bills expanding gambling in the state were defeated and smoking in public buildings was limited, he explained.
After 18 years of working on what has become known as the Clean Indoor Act, Ireland said Alabama is no longer the only state without such a measure. “We were the last state in the union to adopt this policy,” he said, noting his original bill was amended during the legislative process. “While it is not exactly what we wanted, it beats nothing,” Ireland said. “It is a good bill, but it could be stronger.”
Along with requiring all indoor activities for K-12 to be smoke-free and restaurants to limit their smoking areas to 25 percent of their seating, the bill also allows for stronger local laws. “A local county or city ordinance can be stronger that the state law,” Ireland explained.
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