Comer plans referendum on Sunday sales

MadisonJournalTODAY

RSS Feed

Email Alerts

Facebook

Comer City Hall

Comer plans referendum on Sunday sales

Posted by

Frank Gillispie

in Top Stories

Thursday, May 12. 2011

Comments (4)

A Sunday alcohol sales referendum will be put on the November ballot for the city of Comer.

Comer council members agreed Monday to draw up the wording for a referendum to go on the November ballot. Council members emphasized that the decision would be on whether to extend the current beer and wine ordinance to include Sunday sales from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. These hours would not include normal hours for church services. The referendum would not cover liquor.

The Georgia General Assembly recently voted to allow local governments to call for referendums on Sunday package alcohol sales. Comer is the first governmental body in Madison County to call for a referendum.

Comer council members agreed that they wanted the people of the city to decide the issue, though their attorney noted Monday that the referendum would officially be a non-binding vote, meaning a governing body could actually not accept the referendum results if it decided.

Asked for clarification on whether a Sunday sales referendum would be legally binding, State Sen. Frank Ginn said the intent of the law is for a referendum “not to be a straw poll.” He said that if a community approves Sunday sales, the local governing authority has the responsibility of setting the hours of allowable sales. In theory, he said, a community could approve Sunday sales, with a council then voting not to set any hours for it.

“But that’s not what the intent of the law was,” said Ginn.

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

#1 Anonymous on 05/12/11 at 08:41 AM [Reply]

Looks like the Comer government found courage to let the citizens make the decision. Are you listening Mr Dove?

#2 Resident Redneck on 05/12/11 at 08:55 PM [Reply]

They want people to be able to buy beer and wine on Sunday from 1 P.M. to 6 P.M. that way after you get out of Sunday morning service you can go buy and get you some beer and they will stop at 6 so you can go back to church Sunday night? This will run all the boot leggers out of business?

#2.1 jimb on 05/14/11 at 05:52 PM [Reply]

the issue is not about running bootleggers out of business.

#3 jimb on 05/14/11 at 05:51 PM [Reply]

why limit the hours? why not liquor?
let us vote on everything.

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment: E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.

Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
Phone*

What is six minus six?
: Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry
: Submitted comments will be subject to moderation before being displayed.

Community

Madison Community

Comer plans referendum on Sunday sales

MadisonJournalTODAY

Comer plans referendum on Sunday sales

Recent Stories

Recent Comments

Sister Sites

Archives

Community

Keyword Tags