Questions answered by Lamar Paris, County Commissioner
Q. We have heard you are being criticized by some because you are putting alcohol sales on the ballot after it was voted down one time. Why are you doing that again?
A. I really answered this question last week, but four years ago, there were several counties and cities around us who were still dry. That has now changed and they are all now wet. The economy is in shambles and it is not a time to be turning our noses up at possible new businesses who may want to move here. We need jobs. Everyone from local governments to our school system to the state are looking for every revenue source possible to try to prevent increasing property and income taxes.
Finally, recent studies indicate that we already have one of the highest incidents of underage alcohol consumption in the entire state of Georgia!- and we are dry. Some would suggest that it is ridiculous to actually sell it here which will only make it worse. I side with many others who feel that if it were readily available, it would very possibly decrease the illegal use because it would no longer be such an attraction to our youth. Since everyone that legally purchases alcohol is now going out of our county to make those purchases, we are only hurting our local businesses.
Q. It is not fair to let certain people try to place their morals on consenting adults, most of whom are perfectly capable of using alcohol properly, without incident.
A. We are in a democracy and while not everything is controlled by a vote of the public, I strongly feel that an issue this important to our citizens should only be decided by a public vote.
Q. We are being told that more alcohol establishments means more crime and more problems. Is that true?
A. The statistics many are using are primarily in metro areas where bars are allowed and in the poorer sections of town where crime is already high. When bars are allowed on every street corner and are allowed to stay open all night, problems are only natural.
However, if you go to Fannin County, Lumpkin County, White County (not Helen), Cherokee Co, NC or Clay County (Hayesville) NC, you do not see these blighted areas because alcohol is controlled. Bars are not allowed and problems and increased cost due to alcohol sales have simply not happened there. Our regulations will be even more strict than these areas, so we do not anticipate any more issues than they are experiencing.
Q. I heard that one of the local restaurants in Blairsville only came to Blairsville because they were promised by you they could have an alcohol license. Did you really promise this?
A. Absolutely not! First, no one has ever been promised anything regarding alcohol in Union County. If that were the case, I would simply have issued a license, but instead I have chosen to let the voters decide. No one should be afraid to let the voters decide the issue.
Second, this business you talked about is located in the city limits of Blairsville. The vote on the 20th of July on alcohol sales is only in the county. If the county passes it or if it fails, it is up to the Mayor and City Council to decide what happens within the city limits. Neither the county nor this election has anything to do with what happens in the City.
Q. We see that the name of the organization placing the yellow billboards up and placing the ads in the newspaper is called the “Citizens for an Alcohol Free Community, ” but there are no names printed. How do we know who this is and are they allowed to campaign on this issue while remaining anonymous?
A. According to the State Ethics Commission Web Site, (Ethics.Georgia.Gov), the Chairperson of this group is Dr. William Fredrick Lodge.
Q. Isn’t a campaign committee required to post the name of the Chairperson or Treasury with all advertisements?
A. This requirement was repealed in 2008.
Q. Isn’t it possible that we are starting down a “slippery slope” that will only mean future bars and late night problems with alcohol in the future?
A. As long as I am commissioner that will not happen. We will have no Sunday sales, we will have no stand alone bars, and we will have no late night sales of any kind. It is up to the voters to be sure they elect people who will look after the best interests of the county. No one has ever put in a bar or issued a license without a vote of the public in Union County and that is very likely to continue no matter who is elected in the future. However, that responsibility falls to the citizens and voters.
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I want to close with restating a question from last week which is really the most important to me. If I felt voting on this issue was going to negatively impact our youth, there is no way I would allow it. I have spent most of my life working with and for our young people. Meeks Park is a partial result and evidence of that caring.
We can all disagree on the issue of alcohol sales, but I will not stand by when certain folks are using our youth and not only accusing me, but anyone who votes “yes” as being responsible when one of our kids gets killed from alcohol. The real truth is that our youth are already using alcohol, more so than those in most every county in Georgia, and the other counties are already wet. WHO ARE WE BLAMING RIGHT NOW? It should be obvious that the fact we do not sell alcohol in Union County has no bearing on illegal and underage use by our kids. That blame can only be placed at the feet of our community, including our parents, our treatment centers, our churches, our schools, and the folks who are purchasing alcohol and giving it, illegally, to our youth.
But most of all, our kids are the ones who must share this responsibility and they should be held to a higher standard. They must be responsible for looking after each other and providing guidance to those who need it. Laughing at alcohol abuse can be very dangerous as we have seen evidence of in the past. I do not know if we need more education in the schools about the destructive side of illegal alcohol and drug use and abuse or if our parents need to spend more time explaining it to our kids. But the problem, in my opinion, has nothing to do with local alcohol sales, because we have none, but with the demand our kids are creating with wanting to try something they are told they can not have.
I believe that legal alcohol sales in our county could actually have a reverse positive effect on our kids and I am very hopeful that is what will happen should alcohol sales pass. If it does not pass, then we had all better step up our efforts to find out what is the real cause of our youth’s illegal and underage use and abuse of alcohol and drugs, and not pretend they do not already exist, looking for others to blame.