Fayetteville Council
discusses setting November liquor vote By
DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer
Liquor
by the drink was on the Fayetteville City Council
agenda for last night's meeting (after press
time).
Council
members discussed whether to put a question on
the ballot for the city's Nov. 2 election, asking
voters to approve or disapprove sales of liquor
by city restaurants
For
details of the discussion and to learn what the
council members decided, see The Citizen's web
site at www.thecitizennews.com.
Lane
Brown, a local Realtor, has been circulating a
petition to force the question onto the ballot,
but time has run out, and Brown says he is about
100 signatures short of the required number.
State
law requires that alcohol questions be placed on
the ballot if 35 percent of the registered voters
sign a petition. Brown said he has about 1,650
signatures and may be able to get the rest within
a week or two.
I
will continue going on. The petitions are coming
in a little slower, said Brown. I
just don't know if we've got enough time.
City
clerk Judy Stephens answered that question.
We would need 60 days to verify the
signatures and get it on the ballot, she
said. Sept. 3 would be the last day.
City
Council can, by majority vote, put the question
on the ballot without a petition, and that's what
Brown is asking the group to do.
If
council refuses, Brown said he will keep working
to force the issue through petition, but that
will require a special election at additional
expense to the city taxpayers.
I'm
still having trouble with this, said
Councilman Kenneth Steele during a work session
last week. We had an election five years
ago and it was turned down. We have a petition
for referendum and Lane has not gotten sufficient
signatures.
Brown
pointed out that hundreds of new residents have
moved to Fayetteville since the last vote on the
liquor question. And the referendum failed by
only a handful of votes the last time, he said.
During
the work session, council discussed the
possibility of setting up a liquor pouring zone
in its historic Main Street District to bolster
revitalization efforts there, but there was
little sentiment for placing the issue on the
ballot without a petition.
Councilman
Glenn Brewer pointed out, though, that Mayor Mike
Wheat and Councilman Larry Dell were absent from
the work session, and suggested keeping the item
on the agenda for Tuesday's business meeting so
the full council would have a chance to discuss
it.
The
meeting is normally conducted on first Mondays,
but was moved to Tuesday this week because of the
Labor Day holiday.
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