MADISON COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — From one side of the bank to the other, the river spans less than ¼ of a mile. But the distance between Madison and Fayette Counties might as well have been oceans apart.
Until Tuesday night, large portions of Madison County were dry. Alcohol was either not allowed to be sold, or could only be done so on a limited basis. And not at all on Sundays. But voters in the county said ‘yes’ to making the county wet, and now the impact locally could be immeasurable.
“All of those possibilities are there now that weren’t before. Now we can dream of what we want to do,” said Wesley Browne.
Mr. Brown is the owner of Apollo Pizza, and his location in northern Madison County would’ve folded had he not worked to get the necessary signatures on a petition that allowed the measure to be placed on this year’s ballot.
“The signatures were the hardest part,” he said from his restaurant on Wednesday morning, before adding he knew it would pass once it was on a ballot.
Browne has designs on selling beer with that pizza. He’s even got the land out back for a beer garden, which he says is now a real consideration.
“We can throw ourselves into this location and really try to make it the best it can be,” he said.
Chris Rutherford is looking forward to doing the same. His was the only golf course in the vicinity that couldn’t sell alcohol to players or restaurant customers on Sundays.
“It opens a lot of doors to us, and our patrons wanted it,” he said near the driving range.
Rutherford expects the new law to bring in more business, particularly on Sundays during September and October when the weather is still nice enough to play, before coming inside to watch NFL games.
The groundwork for what is viewed by many as being a big win for the county can be traced to 2019 when resident, Shane O’Donley attempted to get the first petition together.
“That one didn’t go the way I wanted, but we got the conversation started,” he said roughly 18 hours after the vote.
“There’s a reason there’s only restaurants on the Fayette County side of the river and not on the Madison County side,” he noted. He also discussed the possibility now for a hotel in the area, more restaurants, improved emergency responder services, and more.
“Now maybe I won’t have to cross the river to take my dry cleaning in,” he joked.
