The Fayette Citizen-News Page
Wednesday, September 1, 1999
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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