Arkansas cities set alcohol-sales elections

At issue is 60-year ban in old Gray Township district

Map showing Gray Township
Map showing Gray Township

The Jacksonville and Sherwood city councils voted unanimously Thursday evening to schedule a special election Nov. 14 for the old Gray Township voting district to decide whether to allow on-premises alcohol sales after 60 years of being a dry area.

Jacksonville council members approved calling the election during their regular meeting Thursday. The Sherwood council passed its ordinance in a special meeting with the election as its only agenda item.

Voters in the old Gray Township precinct voted to make the area dry in the mid-1950s. The alcohol prohibition remains in place, although voting districts across Pulaski County were abolished in the 1980s. Only voters within the original Gray Township boundaries -- estimated at 23,920 -- can reverse the 60-year-old alcohol ban.

Voters within that former precinct will be asked to allow on-premises, by-the-drink alcohol sales at restaurants, which would then be required to derive no more than 30 percent of their sales from alcohol.

Each city will hold the election independent of the other, although the campaign has been a joint effort. The old Gray Township takes up the vast majority of Jacksonville, about half of Sherwood and a small part of unincorporated Pulaski County.

"We're running the campaign together to help get us more attention and to put more emphasis on it, but the elections will be stand-alone," Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletcher said in an interview.

"It's really the same question that's being asked of the voters in both elections, but they are distinctly different," Sherwood City Attorney Stephen Cobb said in an interview. "One could pass and one could fail, or both could pass or fail."

The change is envisioned as helping to spur economic development in each cities, officials said.

"That area of Sherwood is ripe for growth, and we know that some of the businesses that would fall into this category have looked at that area and would like to develop in that area, but this is an impediment," Cobb said. "We'd like to remove that impediment."

Jacksonville's Fletcher said "the private club way is not the way to go when trying to get a national chain here."

"This is such an important thing for our economic development, especially for our downtown," Fletcher said of removing the "dry" restriction.

The prohibition on liquor stores, bars and clubs would remain in place within the township's limits. Grocery stores and gas stations still wouldn't be allowed to sell wine or beer.

Officials in both cities have said they aren't aware of any organized opposition to the change.

The ability for cities to turn their dry pockets "wet" became more feasible after the most recent state legislative session. Act 144, co-sponsored by state Rep. Bob Johnson, D-Jacksonville, allows city councils to call special elections to change their alcohol laws.

Previously, state law required petitioners to gather signatures from 15 percent of the electorate in order to trigger an election related to alcohol consumption. Such collection efforts in 2013 and 2015 failed.

Voters in six former voting districts in North Little Rock's Park Hill area agreed in a 2013 special election to allow alcohol sales in that formerly dry area that included a 2½-mile stretch of John F. Kennedy Boulevard. The area -- under an alcohol ban put in place in 1966 -- was the only dry pocket inside North Little Rock.

Metro on 09/08/2017

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