Barbourville goes all in, approves Sunday alcohol sales

The big question on everyone’s mind now that Barbourville residents have approved the sale of alcohol is will it be sold on Sunday. The answer is yes.

The second reading of Barbourville’s Resolution 2016-1 was held last Friday; however, the vote by the city council to approve the ordinance was not unanimous. Council member Wilma Barnes was missing, and Councilmember Sherman Lawson was the sole no vote.

The 20-page ordinance took Mayor David Thompson nearly an hour to read Thursday, but after all was said and done, the hours were officially set for city alcohol sales.

According to the ordinance, alcohol can be sold Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to midnight. Sunday sales will be from 1 p.m. to midnight.

Barbourville Mayor David Thompson said that as Corbin is the closest competing city, the Barbourville’s council followed Corbin’s guidelines as closely as possible.

“The Chamber felt strong enough to have Corbin make recommendations to us, so we followed their recommendations,” said Mayor Thompson. “I want to thank the Chamber for inviting the Corbin ABC officers to come talk to us.”

Mayor Thompson noted that 95 percent of the ordinance’s regulations referred back to the Kentucky Revised Statues. Even so, he was surprised that during the month that city administrators and city attorney had been working on the ordinance, no one from either side (pro or con) of the issue on alcohol sales had anything to say about the document’s wording.

“No one asked us to put anything in or take anything out,” said Mayor Thompson. “Nobody even attempted to sway us either way. It came together good with what we had to work with, using three other cities’ ordinances. They elected the council to do it for them.”

Barbourville has set in the ordinance the taxes levied from the sale of alcohol for the types of businesses that will most likely open in Barbourville. They include:

• 7% for restaurants with alcohol sold by the drink
• 5% for retail sales of packaged distilled spirits and wine (liquor store)
• 5% for gross retail sales of packaged malt beverage (beer)

This income, according to the state, must be used strictly for the enforcement, administration and policing of alcohol.

The ordinance also included the cost of the business license fees, which include:

• $1,000 for package stores
• $1,000 for restaurants
• $200 for convenience stores (beer)

The ordinance specifically states no application for alcohol sales will be approved if any of the applicants have delinquent taxes owed to the city.

The soonest anyone will be able to apply for an alcohol license is March 8. However, according Barbourville’s newly-appointed ABC administrator, Corey Moren, it could take from 45 to 60 days for any licenses to be approved by the state.

“I think it’s going to be a challenge,” said Moren. “Alcohol is here. We might as well police it, regulate it and enforce it.”

See the complete ordinance online at www.mountainadvocate.come.