Wet/dry elections across state result in 6 towns voting for alcohol, 3 against

Wet/dry elections across state result in 6 towns voting for alcohol, 3 against

The results are in and the fate of several small Alabama towns has been decided — at least for the next two years.

On June 1, the towns held wet/dry referendums. Six towns voted to go wet, three voted to remain dry and in each case, it was by a narrow margin.

But the issue of alcohol sales could come up again in the not-so-distant future. State law says a wet/dry referendum may be held every two years, provided that a petition with 30 percent of the number of voters in the last general election is filed with the city or city clerk.

“We are disappointed in the ones that voted to go wet and are encouraged by the ones who voted to stay dry,” said Joe Godfrey, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program.

“The big alcohol will be back in two years,” he continued. “They’ll keep pushing until every city and every county in Alabama is selling their alcoholic products. We’ve got to recognize this is a long-term battle and that we’ve got to keep fighting.”

Pastors and churches in Aliceville, Chatom, Haleyville, Moulton, Thorsby and Town Creek are disappointed, too. They worked hard to keep their respective towns dry only to see the door opened to alcohol sales.

“We did everything we felt like was feasible and possible to do to appeal to people,” said Scott Delashaw, pastor of Donald Baptist Church, Town Creek.

“We are disappointed in the outcome, but we believe that we got the truth out to the people and to the city.”

Donald Baptist and First Baptist Church, Town Creek, held a vote no rally May 30, with Godfrey as guest speaker. In addition, members of Donald put out yard signs, went door to door handing out fliers and sent mailouts to residents.

Delashaw hopes to re-petition in two years.

For Steve Agee, senior pastor of Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, Moulton, the question for his congregation is where do we go from here.

“The first thoughts I had was ‘How do we train and teach our people to keep a good spirit and to love those folks who were pro-alcohol?,’” Agee said. “We have to minister where we are and reach out in ways that we haven’t done before.”

He said the next step for Pleasant Grove Baptist is to find out what the City Council has recommended in regard to the sale of alcohol in its town.

“We’ve got some leg work to do and some research to find out what we’re up against,” Agee said. “We’ve at least made a statement in the community; they know our commitment and our beliefs and I think that’s positive.”

Pastor Ron Horton of New Prospect Baptist Church, Haleyville, requested prayer for his church.

“Ask churches to pray for us that we will know what to do as we deal with this,” Horton said. “I feel like we as a church worked hard, and we put vote no signs up and put some advertisements in the local paper and tried to educate our people and our community about … alcohol but we came up short.

“All I know to do is to continue to do what the Lord has called us to do — to be a witness in the community and to reach people [with] the gospel,” he added.

But pastors in Falkville, Good Hope and Phil Campbell are “excited about the future” of their towns now that they know alcohol won’t be moving in.

“We rejoice today that it remained dry,” Pastor Sammy Taylor said of Phil Campbell. “I believe God will bless our town … and I think He will provide for the things we need if we seek His righteousness.”

Taylor, who preached on the issue of alcohol for four weeks leading up to the vote and led Mountain View Baptist Church in the fight to stay dry, said, “I really believe that our church involvement had a lot to do with the outcome of the election.

“I believe our church made a difference because we took an active part to defeat the No. 1 drug problem in our county and in our state and in our nation,” he said.

According to Ralph Andrews, pastor of Good Hope Baptist Church, the outcome of the election in his town was affected by prayer.

“I told someone several weeks ago, ‘We are going to work as if everything depended on us, but we are going to depend on God because ultimately it all depends on Him,’” he said.

In the days leading up to the election, Good Hope Baptist held two prayer walks and the day before the election, it held a 24-hour prayer vigil.

“We want everyone to recognize that ultimately it was in God’s hands,” Andrews said. “He deserves the credit and the glory, and we’re going to do our best to make sure He gets it.”