Blue Ridge City Council to consider beer & wine pouring
Just got back from the last of two public meetings being held by the Blue Ridge City Council on whether or not to to allow pouring licenses for beer and wine within city limits. It was standing room only, probably double the 30 people the paper reported as there at the first meeting.
It was mildly heated but cordial, with an overwhelming majority of the crowd obviously pro-business based upon clapping after speeches.
The highlights according to this blogger:
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1. Attorney Byron Wyndham discussed the tourists & dollars that are flowing out of our county/city into Gilmer/Ellijay and brought up a recent article in the Ellijay paper that took a few jabs at Fannin/Blue Ridge:
Fannin County is a quaint, artistic, historic mountain town with garden cafes and gourmet restaurants. It also resembles a ghost town on Saturday nights. When the town should be streaming with diners and tourists enjoying the cool evening breezes, it is still – suffocating under an air of prohibition. Fannin is dry. Blue Ridge does not permit restaurant sales of alcohol, including beer and wine. article…
- 2. A gentleman on the prohibition side took about 15-minutes from the 1.5 hours-plus meeting to recite way too many statistics regarding the difference in crime rates, etc. between wet and dry counties. Aside from not quoting a single source, and not disclosing which/what type of counties were being compared (”122% increase in murder rate”: let me guess, rural vs. urban eh?), he failed recognize that technically Fannin is not a dry county and we’re talking about a city ordinance here. I do give him refreshing credit for being the only speaker on the prohibition side not to bring religion or morals into his argument–thank you! Un-spin your stats and I’m all ears.
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3. Another prohibitionist cited “a magazine article” in which Blue Ridge was named the #3 top tourist destination in the world and that this was accomplished “without alcohol”. Actually, it’s not “without alcohol” as we’re way beyond totally dry here, but I believe she was mistakenly referring to tripadvisor.com’s automated ranking of Blue Ridge as #5 in the top 10 US travel destinations. As I talked about here, this ranking was based on an automated algorithm that scans their website to produce these (in my opinion, flawed) rankings. Sorry, but I can’t imagine any place truly being in the top ten for US/world tourist destinations that doesn’t allow restaurants to serve beer or wine. Park City, Utah and the Mormons got together to come up with “3-2 beer”/”Mormon beer” which allows pouring of reduced-alcohol beer by the restaurants and the brewery there. Fortunately, they worked out a deal years before the Olympics came to town. Otherwise, the Olympic Committee would have most likely said no thanks to Utah.
- 4. Jack Morton, of Indulgence Salon, a proclaimed non-drinker, garnered the loudest ovation of the meeting when he pointed out that downtown churches and businesses have a natural association by way of their volunteer efforts in the community, yet they both need to flourish to continue to grow those efforts and the community benefit derived thereof. It was the first personal public appeal I’ve seen to try to bridge the ‘us vs. them’ gap by either side, and judging from the applause, at least one side heartily supported the concept. In my opinion, this is businesses’ only way of asking for help from the community for the foreseeable future. Passing the plate so-to-speak…
Apparently, the vote (4 city council members + the mayor) will take place soon behind closed doors. The consensus seems to be that 2 council members will be voting to approve the new ordinance and 2 will be voting against it, with the mayor being the tiebreaker. I’ve heard rumors for well over 6-months that the mayor is leaning to the pro-business side, but that remains to be seen. Do you think it will pass? vote…
Why is this vote going to be a closed doors vote when so many residents are affected by the outcome? I for one would like to have the option of having a beer with my meal at El Agave or a glass of wine at Angelina’s! Getting drunk is not my goal when I have a glass of wine or beer. It’s the satisfaction of a good tasting beer or wine PLUS the freedom to choose. Declaring that drinking is a sin is an opinion only and if researched, one will find that the Bible does not say that alcohol is a sin…it’s the getting drunk that COULD lead to sin. I think I am gonna have a glass of wine now. Thanks!
it’s too bad prohabition doesn’t stop child abuse, animal abuse, incest and many more secrets of blue ridge. i think they should open the county to new ideas, new faces, and come into the 21st century.
they have problems to solve that have nothing to do with liquor. i guess most of the original citizens of blue ridge can’t keep their alcohol intake under control.
it’s too bad because it is a beautiful plzce to live and has alot to give.
it has wonderful shops like blue christmas and the deli.
It appears to me the majority of material in the blog relates to the sale of alcohol in Fannin County. It also appears that the majority of the individuals contributing to this forum have some vested interest in liquor by the drink. I was also interested in the comment “the original citizens of Blue Ridge” which indicates to me the the groups behind the alcohol issue are Fannin county’s major problem, transplants. If you folks have not already gotten the message, come here and live the life style that has made this place quiet and safe or go back where you came from and take your liberal, politicly correct, grilled salmon, gated community mentality with you.
my, arn’t we stuck in the 1800’s. i think this man ought to come into the present and realize that these so called transplants that live here are the people who pay the majority of the taxes, have businesses in town, and for the most part are the educated ones. blue ridge is a beautiful, growing town, it needs change, change to better the town, this little town could have such a bright future.
i think the bible totin’ people ought to stick to church on sunday and leave the important things to the pweople who care about making this place a better place to live.
I feel a solution would be to limit the amount of drinks a person can purchase at a restaurant. Perhaps more time needs to be spent on the severe meth problem instead.
I AGREE WITH MARIAN, I THINK BLUE RIDGE HAS OTHER SEVERE PROBLEMS THEY TRY TO HIDE OR IGNORE INSTEAD OF DEALING WITH THEM. BLUE RIDGE IS A BEAUTIFUL, QUAINT PLACE TO VISIT AND COULD BE A NICE PLACE TO LIVE.
I DON’T SEE WHY RESTAURANTS COULD NOT SERVE LIQUOR, WHEN YOU HAVE GAS STATIONS AND CONVIENENT STORES THAT SELL “COLDEST BEER IN TOWN”, SO THE SIGNS SAY ON THE SIDES OF BUILDINGS. WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE COLD, WHEN YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSE TO BE DRINKING IN YOUR CAR? FOR A DRY COUNTY, I HAVE NEVER SEEN SO MANY STORES
SELLING AND PEOPLE HAVING ACCESS TO BOOZE.
COME ON PEOPLE, SCREW YOUR HEADS ON STRAIGHT, IT’S ALL ABOUT CLEANING UP YOUR ACT. PLEASE, FOR ONCE, WORRY ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN, ABUSE RATE IN BLUE RIDGE IS 50%, INCEST IS PRESENT, METH LABS PRESENT, DEAL WITH WHAT NEEDS TO BE DEALT WITH, AND DON’T SWEAT THE LITTLE THINGS. HAVING A DRINK IN A RESTAURANT IS OK.
Whatever happened to the separation of church and state. If these churches are influencing the votes, shouldn’t they be paying taxes? During the last vote, I saw churches with “vote no” signs. Clearly showing the attempt to meddle in government issues.
The behaviors the churches are trying to stop are not from the people having a casual drink with dinner. They are from the ones buying cases of beer from the grocery stores and drinking from brown bags on the corners. Isn’t there a drive through beer stop in Blue Ridge? Gee, lets serve them beer while they are driving. This city has never made any sense on these issues to me.
The restaurants always have the right to refuse another glass of alcohol if they see a problem arising.
If Blue Ridge wants to thrive with the times, they need to get with the times and see what happens. Then in the future, they would have proof if things went downhill.
Perhaps if the “original citizens of Blue Ridge” had been taught to respect alcohol, there wouldn’t be an issue. I see more DUI write-ups in the paper about the locals than anyone else!
By the way, the so called “Transplants” are what is keeping Blue Ridge alive!
I see both sides being raised in a Christian family, but if I choose not to drink it is my right. No one is going to hold me down and pour it down my throat. In today’s world, a county seems to suffer in a multitude of ways when they try and stay dry. The economy seems to be lost to other counties and as a tourist location, we do not have the quality or should I say the selection of fine dining that we should have. When a visitor ask me downtown ‘Can you tell me of a good place to eat?’, it bothers me to name a few places (That I enjoy) only to be followed by the question ‘Do they serve alcohol?’. I think our county needs to look at the situation and do what is best for all of its residence…not just the few that want to keep us stagnant!
The problem with this county is that you have to many baptists. who are you to tell me what I can or can’t do. What gets me is the fact that all of you people are going to vote for a person that wants to take every right you have away from you. Just know while we are sharing the wealth we are going to need a drink.