Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
March 27, 2008 issue
Story by Garrett Simmons and Kathleen McFadden
At last Thursday’s Boone Town Council meeting, Boone Saloon co-owner Stephen Sinanian, representing the ABC Task Force, requested support from the town council to schedule a ballot referendum in September on the question of allowing mixed beverages to be served in Boone. Sinanian also asked the council to schedule a public hearing on the issue.
The council agreed to a public hearing on Thursday, April 24, at 6:30 p.m. in the commissioners’ boardroom in the Watauga County Administration Building. After hearing input on the issue, the council will decide whether to request a referendum. Town Attorney Sam Furgiuele informed the council members that they cannot schedule the date of the referendum if they request a ballot initiative. The Board of Elections sets the date. The last time town residents voted on allowing mixed beverages in Boone was in the mid-1990s.
Sinanian told the council that the ABC Task Force, composed of professionals, entrepreneurs and academicians, has identified three primary benefits of bringing mixed beverage service to Boone: public safety, expanding clientele and revenue for the town.
In his four years of co-ownership of the Boone Saloon, Sinanian said, “I have been approached by students, parents and students who have requested mixed beverages. I have to send them to Blowing Rock and Banner Elk.”
Both the Downtown Boone Development Association and the Boone Tourism Development Authority support the initiative. At last week’s meeting, Sinanian provided letters of support from the DBDA and the TDA to the council members and summarized the contents.
The members of the DBDA voted on February 6 to support the initiative, and DBDA President Richie Jacobs outlined in a letter to the town council the benefits of mixed beverage service in Boone. The letter expressed the DBDA’s “strong desire to retain or expand existing business, encourage downtown redevelopment, and promote small business development.”
Boone’s status as a dry town, as compared to Blowing Rock and other neighboring towns, has become more relevant this year with the closing of several downtown restaurants. This “discouraging trend,” according to Jacobs’ letter, can be attributed to the loss of revenue from restricting mixed beverage sales.
To illustrate how mixed beverage service could promote small business development and help the town, the DBDA compared ABC retail sales in Boone and Blowing Rock in 2006-07. According to the DBDA figures, the Boone ABC store had annual retail sales of $4.02 million and mixed beverage sales in private clubs of $37,477. Comparatively, the Blowing Rock ABC store had retail sales of $886,344 and mixed beverage sales in restaurants and private clubs of $845,546.
The letter stated that using Blowing Rock as a sales model, Boone could expect half of its ABC sales through restaurants if a mixed-beverage referendum passes. Such a shift would increase the town’s tax revenues, the letter maintained, because restaurants purchasing alcohol from area ABC stores for resale pay $5 per liter of alcohol in addition to the 6.75 percent tax.
“Of the profits created from restaurant purchases, 50 percent is returned to the local ABC board to be distributed into the town general fund,” the letter stated.
In addition, Jacobs’ letter provided results from a 2006 survey by professional survey company Talk2Rep. The 1,001 phone surveys showed that 54.8 percent of respondents agreed that Boone should change the law and allow the purchase of mixed beverages in Boone restaurants.
In its letter to the town council, the TDA expressed sentiments similar to the DBDA’s, stating, “The TDA is charged with developing the economic strength of Boone through tourism.”
However, the issue of bringing mixed beverages to Boone raises concerns, one of which is public safety.
Watauga County has been identified as one of the top 18 counties in North Carolina for alcohol-related crashes and fatalities. To help better understand contributing factors, Watauga County has received a grant from the North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services.
Dr. Kurt Michael and Dr. Lisa Curtin with the Department of Psychology at ASU are using the grant to conduct a needs assessment and to aid future understanding of drinking and driving in Watauga County. Michael said research results should be available before summer 2008.
Those results could potentially influence any decision concerning the sale of mixed beverages in Boone. In the meantime, the DBDA argues, the unavailability of mixed beverages in Boone contributes to Watauga County’s high accident rate because of the number of Boone residents who drive to Blowing Rock to purchase mixed beverages.
In Jacobs’ letter to the town council, he cited recent studies in Kentucky and Arkansas that concluded, “Prohibiting alcohol sales may actually reduce public safety. Research has found that dry counties have higher proportions of alcohol-related traffic crashes than do wet counties. The study in Kentucky suggested that residents of dry counties have to drive farther from their homes to consume alcohol, thus increasing impaired driving exposure. The study in Arkansas noted that wet and dry counties are often adjacent and that alcohol beverage sales outlets are often located immediately across county or even state lines.”
West Jefferson passed a mixed beverage and ABC referendum last year. Doug Williamson, who formerly managed the ABC store in Sparta, is manager of West Jefferson’s new ABC store. Williamson said that since the store opened on November 1, 2007, he has seen only one significant change. “Everyone is staying in town,” he said. “People who drink will manage to get alcohol one way or another. Now, people who used to get their alcohol from Sparta or Wilkesboro are happy because they don’t have to drive so far.”
ABC retail reports from February show monthly sales in Sparta down 3.5 percent and sales in Wilkesboro down 0.81 percent. The Sparta and Wilkesboro stores are two of only eight ABC store locations in North Carolina that showed a decrease in sales for February. The West Jefferson ABC store has projected its first year sales to reach more than $750,000.
Chief Grogan of the West Jefferson Police Department said neither he nor his officers have seen any negative outcome from the change so far. “It is still early,” he said. “But from what we’ve witnessed so far, the response has been only positive. Crime has not changed, and we don’t expect it to as a result.”
The Boone Town Council will hear public comment on the question of mixed beverage sales in Boone restaurants at a public hearing on Thursday, April 24, at 6:30 p.m. at the commissioners’ boardroom in the Watauga County Administration Building.