MADISON COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — If the vote on a ballot measure in Madison County goes the way some are hoping, the impact on the area could be significant.
Outside of the Richmond and Berea city limits, Madison County is mostly dry, meaning business owners can’t sell alcohol. Some can do so, but on a limited-license basis only.
“It gives us the ability to be open and be a full-service restaurant,” said Chris Rutherford, the owner of Boone’s Trace National Golf Club.
Mr. Rutherford can’t sell alcohol to his players and customers on Sundays. You might imagine not being able to do so hurts his overall business.
“This would be huge,” he said. “That is one of the things they (his customers) would like to see too, to be able to serve on a Sunday.
Rutherford said it would open the door to having more people on the course and more people in the restaurant during the early months of the football season when our weather is still suitable for golfing.
Four years ago, Shane O’Donley tried to get the requisite amount of signatures on the petition to get this measure to the ballot. It didn’t work out then as it did last winter.
“I was a little distraught when it didn’t happen,” O’Donley said. “I thought to myself, ‘this state is going to start selling recreational marijuana before we can go to the BP station to buy a six-pack, or have a beer while playing golf,’” he continued.
Apollo Pizza owner, Wesley Browne, led the campaign during the winter to get the necessary signatures, and now voters will have a chance to have a say on the matter. He told LEX 18 in January that his northern Madison County location will become a casualty if he’s not able to sell alcohol with a meal.
O’Donley said the impact would go beyond helping current business owners.
“We’d have the potential to get hotels, restaurants, increase the tax base, more opportunity for fire department services, or quicker emergency service response times,” he said, before stating it can take up to 20 minutes for the nearest first responder to reach his neighborhood near the Boone Trace course.
If the measure passes, it would then be up to the county judge-executive to give it the stamp of approval. Then the process of licensing businesses to sell alcohol could begin.
