Liquor issue on Russell ballot

By MIKE JAMES
The Independent

RUSSELL July 21, 2008 11:42 pm

— The petition drive in Russell to allow restaurants to sell liquor by the drink has amassed enough signatures to place the issue on the fall ballot.
More than 530 signatures had been collected by 1 p.m. Monday, said petition drive coordinator Steven Blair.
Blair needed 268 valid signatures to get the issue to voters — 25 percent of the number of voters who cast ballots in the most recent general election.
“Receiving over 530 signatures to date has given us over 50 percent of the 2007 turnout. That’s huge,” Blair said in an e-mail message.
The successful petition drive will place on the November ballot an issue to allow restaurants in the city to sell liquor by the drink. It will be similar to an issue that passed in Boyd County in May 2007.
The issue would affect the city only and would limit liquor sales to restaurants seating at least 100 and deriving at least 70 percent of income from food sales.
No bars or package sales would be allowed.
The issue would affect Russell only. All of Greenup County is currently dry.
A direct-mail campaign jump-started the petition campaign, which had faltered after Blair collected about 180 signatures at the site where developers want to build the eatery.
Using a mailing list purchased from the state board of elections, he sent petitions to every registered voter in the three precincts that make up the city.
The drive isn’t over; Blair will continue to collect signatures until July 28 and has to submit them to Greenup County Clerk Pat Hieneman in the first week in August.
Blair said he has received numerous phone calls supporting the campaign and only one call and one letter in opposition.
If voters pass the issue, a national franchise wants to build a restaurant at the Russell Centre, on the site where a Ponderosa Steakhouse once stood.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2652.