Published: August 19, 2008 11:36 pm            

Voters veto legal alcohol sales

Final tally: 58 no, 36 yes

MEADS — In a special election that wound up drawing mostly yawns from voters, residents of one Boyd County precinct on Tuesday defeated a proposal that would have legalized alcohol sales at a local golf course.

Fewer than 10 percent of the registered voters in the Garner precinct bothered going to the polls to weigh in on the question, “Are you in favor of the sale of alcoholic beverages by the drink at Sandy Creek Golf Course?”

The final tally, according to the Boyd County Clerk’s Office: 58 no, 36 yes.

There are about 1,000 registered voters in the Garner precinct. However, only 289 of them voted in the last presidential election, meaning Sandy Creek owners Rich and Tammy Mahar needed to collect 72 signatures on a petition to have the 25 percent necessary to force Tuesday’s referendum. They collected 86.

Rich Mahar said Tuesday evening he appreciated everyone who took the time to vote, regardless of where they stood on the issue.

“It would have been nice to see more people out, though, rather than having this thing decided by less than 10 percent of the voters, ” he said.

Mahar also said he considered the result of the election to be “a lost opportunity.”

“It’s a lost opportunity to put more people to work, to have more money spent here in Boyd County and to have a safer Meade Springer Road,” he said.

Mahar said earlier that having legal sales at Sandy Creek, in addition to generating additional revenue, would help him control the amount of alcohol consumed on the golf course. Sandy Creek allows patrons to bring coolers onto the grounds, and, Mahar said, many golfers bring in ice chests loaded with beer.

Mahar said he was somewhat surprised with the outcome of the election because of the number of people who had told him they hoped the issue would pass.

Under the law, the golf course can seek another wet-dry election in three years. Mahar said he plans do just that.

The result of Tuesday’s referendum essentially renders moot a lawsuit filed last week by a church group challenging the legality of the election.

The Greenup Baptist Association maintained the law passed by the Kentucky General Assembly in 2000 that allows golf courses to conduct local option elections did not apply to Sandy Creek.

The basis for the lawsuit was a portion of the law that references the so-called “Ashland liquor law,” which was passed in 1980 and allowed individual precincts in second-class cities to have local option elections.

Under the 2000 law, nine- and 18-hole golf courses meeting U.S. Golf Association criteria and in counties where residents have voted, in whole or in part, to repeal prohibition are permitted to have wet-dry elections. However, an amendment tacked onto the bill by state Rep. John Vincent, R-Ashland, excepts golf courses in “territories” that have gone partially wet via the Ashland liquor law.

The Baptist Association, which represents about 50 Southern Baptist Churches in a five-county area, sought an emergency injunction to halt Tuesday’s election, but Boyd Circuit Judge C. David Hagerman declined, after a hearing on Friday, to issue one.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.

        

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