Mayor Estimates A 25 to 40 % Drop In Lancaster’s Liquor Revenues

By Ted Cox
tcox@garrardcentralrecord.com

Voters in Danville accepted alcohol sales in Tuesday’s Wet/Moist vote for the city of Danville, casting 2,508 ballots for the measure and 1,911 in opposition.

“The Danville wet voters prevailed,” Garrard County Economic Development Director Nathan Mick said. “Danville needed a boost with well over 450 job losses and numerous business closings recently announced at FKI, Red Wing, K-Mart, FYE Music, Sutton's and the railroad.”

The vote does away with the current restrictions that were enacted in 2003, which allowed alcohol sales in Danville by the drink in restaurants that seat 100 people and make 70 percent of their gross receipts from food sales.

Six licenses will allow businesses to sell liquor by the drink without seating restrictions. Six package liquor sale licenses, determined by population, will also be available within city limits, twice as many as Lancaster. Licenses for beer sales, restaurants that meet specific seating, food sales requirements and temporary licenses will not be limited to a restricted number.

“I'm glad Lancaster went ‘wet’ first and we will continue to see plenty of business coming to Garrard County from several counties,” Mick said.  “Danville's ‘wet’ status is not immediate so it will take months to really know how much of the market share will go there.”

Lancaster Mayor Don Rinthen estimates the loss in tax revenues could be anywhere between 25 and 40 percent depending on several factors.

“We still have a significant niche in Lancaster because you can't legally buy packaged liquor anywhere south of us until you travel over 100 miles to Tennessee,” Mick added. “We'll continue to work hard and stay focused on Garrard County.”

It will take 60 days for the change to become official, giving Garrard another two months to take advantage of being the only wet city in the area. Applications for liquor by the drink and package liquor licenses could begin working their way through the system before that however, even more drastically cutting in on what was a significant commercial draw to Lancaster from surrounding areas.

Citizens interested in applying for licenses could possibly be scheduled within the month.