Residents against a proposed Sunday liquor sales ordinance showed in numbers during the City of Milton’s Growth, Development and Annexation Committee meeting on Thursday. Discussion of allowing potential alcohol sales ordinance stems from a recent Downtown Redevelopment Advisory Board meeting, in which local business owners suggested the committee explore allowing liquor sale on Sunday in Milton although no action will be taken to the city council yet. Committee member and City of Milton Mayor Wesley Meiss made a motion to push the item to next month’s Growth, Development and Annexation Committee meeting in order to give the city attorney more time to gather information on the issue and allow the council to speak with their constituents on the matter. Council member Messick gave a second to the motion.
“At the DRAB meeting there were several business owners that spoke to their beliefs that businesses could be more competitive, that we could attract more business downtown,” City Attorney Heather Lindsey said. “A number of business owners asked that the city look at this..”
At the beginning of the meeting, Committee chairwoman Ashley Lay said the committee and Lindsey needed additional time to further research this issue before proposing any action be taken by the city council.
“This is a very divided issue and we represent parties on both sides,” Lay said. “We, as a committee, have not had adequate time to dive into this.”
With the number of people in attendance, additional seating had to be brought inside the council chambers. Many attendees wanted to voice their opinion on the issue.
Grady Hester, a former Milton council member, shared his recent experience when he made a motion on the council to permit liquor sales on Sunday.
“My wife and I caught hell…for that,” Hester said. “We came back and overturned all of that.”
Hester suggested the council let the residents decide whether or not to allow Sunday liquor sales on a future referendum.
“This is such a contentious issue that I would say let the voters decide on the ballot box,” he said.
Council member Jimmy Messick, who serves on the committee, agreed with Hester’s suggestion.
“I would like the entire county to be able to vote on this,” Messick said.
Many of the attendees to speak in opposition spoke from a religious stand point.
“Once you change from a Biblical position to a social position then it is going to go downhill from there,” Joey Mars said. “The point being that this is a religious community and we have a lot of people in the community that stand on Bible principles and if you are going to consider anything at all, consider what the Word of God says about liquor.”
In addition to taking a religious stance on the issue, several of the attendees said permitting such an ordinance would cause concern for public safety and affect the overall family atmosphere.
Pastor Carl Gallups of Hickory Hammock Baptist Church, who previously served as a law enforcement officer in the state, said the council should be careful when considering loosening laws for alcohol.
“I can tell you that with every loosen with the liquor laws in this county are going to come with a barrage of law enforcement problems and heartaches, that you do not want to unleash upon this city and this county,” Gallups said. “Especially, not in the name of a few extra dollars in a few pockets of a few businessmen downtown.”
Glen Hill, the general manager of the Blackwater Bistro in downtown Milton, said alcohol is already being sold in Milton on Sundays at the Navy Docks, the NEX exchange location in the Whiting Pines subdivision and at Naval Air Station Whiting Field.
“The City of Milton does not receive any of the money from that to repave roads, build infrastructure or any of those things,” he said. “What we find is that developers will not come to Milton and develop ‘tier one’ restaurants and we have all of the (property) parcels up and down Stewart Street, up and down Dogwood (Drive) and up and down (Highway) 90 that can develop large restaurants for our families to enjoy.”
Hill believes allowing alcohol and liquors sales on Sundays will attract those restaurants to Milton.
“We can build them here, all the city council has to do is change the ordinance,” Hill said.
Hill also states the number of those in opposition of such an ordinance at the meeting was misleading due to the number of attendees not living within Milton city limits.
“There are a few of our residents who were there, but for a majority of those opposition members − they do not live within the City of Milton,” he said following the committee meeting. “Also not one single one of them are tax producing business owners in the City of Milton, they are all pastors of churches, which are nonprofit.”
Lay said the committee was looking into the matter as requested by DRAB and no position was going to be taken by the council on the issue.
“It’s not that the council or this committee is taking a position, we are doing what we are elected to do,” she said.
The next scheduled Growth, Development and Annexation Committee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, June 18 at 10 a.m. at the Milton City Hall building.
Want to Go?
What? Growth, Development and Annexation Committee
When? Thursday, June 18 at 10 a.m.
Where? Milton City Hall, 6738 Dixon Street, Milton
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Milton: Sunday alcohol sales discussed