Correction: Boone County voters approved alcohol sales in 2010 and Benton County voters approved alcohol sales in 2012. Articles published Oct. 21, 2013, and Feb. 24 about counties considering alcohol sales incorrectly stated when Boone County voted to go "wet" and omitted Benton County as one of the counties to approve it in 2012.
A retired airline pilot is organizing an effort to legalize alcohol sales in Independence County, saying he’s tired of seeing Sharp County receive revenue that his county should be getting, because Sharp County became “wet” in 2012.
Phillip Finch of Batesville, a retired Delta Air Lines pilot, began gathering signatures Thursday to place the issue on Independence County’s November general election ballot.
“Our point is, let’s let the people decide upon it,” said Finch, the chairman of Wet or Dry, Let’s Decide. “Ninety percent of people alive in our county weren’t old enough to vote on it last time this came up.”
Independence County voters chose to ban the sale of alcohol in 1945. The issue has not gone to an election since.
Although Finch sees the revenue from alcohol sales go to neighboring Sharp County, Jerry Hagar of Batesville thinks allowing sales would create an expensive burden in Independence County.
Before becoming the pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Batesville, Hagar was a police officer in Dallas, Little Rock and Newport. He also worked for the Arkansas State Police and the Independence County sheriff’s office.
“Batesville is the only town I worked where I didn’t pick up drunks,” Hagar said. “It would be detrimental to the county to go wet. Robberies, assaults, rapes all have increased in wet counties.”
Finch and Hagar, who have each hosted public meetings this month to garner support for their positions, were once political colleagues. Finch is the chairman of the Independence County Republican Party, and Hagar once ran as a Republican candidate for sheriff.
The county joins several others in Arkansas that have debated alcohol sales.
Along with Sharp County, Boone and Madison counties voted to go wet in 2012. Residents in Randolph County are also collecting signatures to place the issue on that county’s ballot in November.
Michael Langley, director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Division, said six counties have decided to allow the sale of alcohol in the past seven years.
Thirty-nine Arkansas counties now allow sales, according to the state Department of Finance and Administration.
“Location is a factor,” Langley said of the trend toward counties accepting alcohol sales. “If a county borders a county that’s wet, they see they are losing tax revenues.Also, growth is a drive. People are coming in from out of state for economic expansion. They are used to the way it was where they were from, and they’re questioning it here.
“There’s less of a stigma to alcohol now. If you ever get enough signatures, you’ll pass it overwhelmingly,” he said.
Finch’s group will need to collect signatures from 38 percent of the 19,000 registered voters in Independence County, or 7,220, to get the measure on the ballot.
Finch said canvassers will walk in neighborhoods on the weekends and leave petitions at convenience stores across the county to gather signatures.
“We need the revenue we’re losing [to Sharp County],” Finch said. “Just like other counties, Independence County is facing a budget crisis with its jail. Police officers haven’t gotten raises in a while.
“There’s no shortage of alcohol in the county, but we’re getting none of the funds from it.”
He said people in Batesville - the county’s largest city, with 10,400 people - now drive 15 miles to Cave City in Sharp County or 30 miles to Newport in Jackson County to buy alcohol.
“They drive there, buy their beer and then drink it on the way back,” he said. “It’s dangerous.”
But Hagar said the distance is a deterrent from buying alcohol.
“If there’s more access, there’s more availability,” he said. “You can go in a convenience store or in Wal-Mart in Newport and walk by a display of beer. Kids [younger than 21] can easily get someone else to buy a six-pack of beer for them in their town. It would be easier than having them go to Cave City or Newport for it.”
Hagar said he moved his family to Batesville from Newport because the county doesn’t sell alcohol.
“We moved because Newport became a bad place to raise our kids,” he said. “We didn’t see beer cans everywhere in Batesville. I drove by the courthouse and saw a sign saying we should attend our local churches. Batesville is a nice, clean place.
“I’ve seen the other counties that are wet and what they turn into,” he said.
More than 170 people who attended Hagar’s meeting last week at a Southside district school were in support of keeping the county dry, he said.
“We’re asking them not to sign the petition,” he said. “If they sign, it’s the same as voting for it. We’re trying to get people to understand that.”
Finch said his group will continue to focus on the money the county is losing.
“In the last five years, we lost 2,200 jobs,” he said. “Ten years ago, 11 percent of the county’s budget was for the jail. Today, it’s 60 percent. We have so little money to spend. We need to think of ways to get more money, and this is one way.
“It’s not a moral issue, it’s a monetary one,” Finch said.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 02/24/2014