Friday, January 24, 2003
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Friday, January 24, 2003 |
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Liquor referendum heads to the polls By JOHN
THOMPSON Voters in unincorporated Coweta County will head to the polls later this year to decide if they want a cocktail with their dinner. By a 3-2 vote Tuesday night, the Coweta County Commission decided to let the voters make the decision on liquor in the unincorporated county. Newnan currently allows mixed drinks at restaurants that have at least 50 percent of their sales in food. Commission chairman Leigh Schlumper, who led the referendum drive, said she would like the county's ordinance to mirror Newnan's. In 1997, voters in the county voted down a liquor by the drink referendum, but Schlumper said the demographics in the county have changed dramatically in the last six year. Commissioner Vernon "Mutt" Hunter, who voted against the referendum, said there were other ways to get the item on the ballot, such as people gathering 35 percent of the registered voters signatures to put it up for a vote. Resident Brant Frost asked the board to table the issue, since it had come up so quickly, and warned of dire consequences if the issue was approved by the voters. "Any income from liquor is expensive. It puts our families and children at risk," he said. Commissioner Robert Wood, who supported the issue, rebuffed arguments that drinking was immoral and said "grown-up adults should be able to make their own decisions." Newly elected Commissioner Greg Tarbutton, who says he frequents some of the restaurants in Newnan that serve liquor, voted against the referendum because an overwhelming majority of calls he'd received were against the idea. "I was elected to serve the people in my district and that's their opinion," he said. The county's other new commissioner, Larry DeMoss, sided with the majority and said he believed the people had a right to vote on the issue. The county has not set a date for the referendum.
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