The Decatur Board of Mayor and Aldermen will wait to see the outcome of the July 6 special election, in which voters will decide whether they want to legalize the sale of beer, wine and liquor, before they pass an ordinance to regulate the sale and advertising of alcohol.
During its regular meeting June 1 and a recessed meeting June 7, the board had lengthy discussions about the alcohol ordinance, including a nearly four-hour meeting on June 1.
While most of the aldermen seemed to be in agreement with the alcohol ordinance, Alderman Mark Buntyn wanted to delay passing the ordinance because he felt it would give the wrong impression on whether the board supports alcohol.
“And you know, I know that it’s going to be confusing to some folks,” Buntyn said. “Once they see it, they say, well, why are they doing this? If this happened? And I don’t really know the proper way to do that, whether now it could look like we’re supporting it, but we’ve got to make a decision. I mean, I know they (the board) need to be prepared to vote on it if it does.”
The board’s proposed ordinance mirrors Quitman’s ordinance. That city in Clarke County passed an ordinance prior to the election so that they were prepared if the county went wet. According to city attorney Jason Mangum, potential businesses could sell beer and wine or possibly liquor “unrestricted” if alcohol was approved by voters and no ordinance was in place business received their state licenses.
However, Mangum said the new board, which will be sworn in prior to the next regular meeting on June 6, could adopt the ordinance that night, and the act would take effect immediately according to state law.
“I think they have the authority to sell it within the city limits (if it passes),” Mangum said. “If the voters approve it in the election, it becomes law. (This ordinance) just reigns in some controls.”
One of the things that several aldermen were concerned about is whether Decatur could become littered with package stores. However, current Mayor David Marshall said it might not be feasible for many to own package stores. He said potential package store owners would have to purchase property, build a building and stock the liquor store before they could open.
That would also be contingent on obtaining a liquor license from the state.
“So once you got one liquor store in town, who’s going to come in and invest $400,000 to $600,000 for a gamble in a town with the population 1,250 people roughly,” Marshall said. “So it’s just economics of it. If we get one liquor store in town, we don’t even know if one’s even going to open up, but even one liquor store in town is looking at about $400,000 by the time they build a building for a parking lot and then stock the rebuilding. And that would have to be really somebody that already owns land to be able to do it that cheap locally in town.”
The ordinance includes many restrictions including no visible advertising of specific alcohol or beer brands, using only generic verbiage such as beer, wine and spirits on storefronts visible from the road, open container laws, getting board approval before alcohol could be sold on town property during specific events and how close businesses selling alcohol can be with churches and schools.
Alderman Max Anderson questioned Mangum whether the ordinance include special rules so that businesses that sold alcohol would have to upkeep and maintain their buildings. Mangum said they would need to get guidance from the zoning board.
“No, I wish that we could treat these stores differently than we treat other stories,” Mangum said. “I just don’t think we can. I think, I think we probably need to get zoning board to provide some input and give us some workable.”
The aldermen planned to have a meeting with the zoning board within the next couple of weeks to address the storefront aesthetics issue.
If alcohol passes and the ordinance is adopted, businesses would have to obtain two separate privilege licenses. One is for beer and wine; the other would be for liquor. The town would likely charge a $15 additional fee for beer and wine. There would be no additional charge for liquor, but the city would collect $900 from restaurants and $1,800 from package stores plus a percentage of their sales.
