Alcohol proponents kick up campaign

By: Sharon McBrayer | Morganton News Herald
Published: October 08, 2009

Morganton --

The effort to get alcohol sales in Valdese is heating up, but it is facing opposition.
The group Citizens for New Business in Valdese is working to get enough names on a petition to call for a vote on beer, wine and liquor-by-the-drink sales and an ABC store in the town.
The group has until Nov. 19 to get 35 percent (1,049) of registered voters in the town to sign the petition, according to election officials.
The group will hold a call-a-thon from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday to encourage registered town voters to sign the petition. They're asking for volunteers (with cell phones) who will help make calls to show up at the American Legion Post on Church Street, which is sponsoring the call-a-thon, according to information from the group.
The group also had a call-a-thon last weekend.
"We're very happy with the response from those we called Saturday," said Ben Cozort, chairman of Citizens for New Business in Valdese. "Most people were very receptive to our message that alcohol sales is a step toward revitalizing our town by attracting new business and jobs in Valdese — something the town desperately needs."
So far, the group's petition has 451 valid signatures, said Greer Suttlemyre, director of elections for Burke County.
In addition to the call-a-thons, the group will canvass neighborhoods in Valdese on Oct. 17, starting at the legion post at 9 a.m., and ask people to sign the petition.
The petition also can be signed at Cornerstone Antiques and Coffee Shop, 100 Main St.
While one group tries to get the support it needs, another group is opposing the call for a vote.
The opponents include five ministers of churches in and around the town of Valdese, the vice president of Kelex Seating, Larry Parsons, and Sen. Jim Jacumin.
Jacumin was part of the group Citizens for a Drug Free Valdese, which led the 2002 fight to defeat a referendum on alcohol sales in the town.
A letter dated Sept. 8, and signed by Jacumin, the ministers and Parsons, was sent to households in Valdese. It listed their arguments against alcohol sales in the town.
The letter, which asked that people not sign the petition, said alcohol sales would endanger the children and families and the history and heritage of the Valdese.
It gave statistics on traffic deaths involving alcohol and called drunk driving the "nation's most frequent violent crime."
The letter says taxes increase when a town votes in favor of alcohol sales, because of increased costs for police and the criminal-justice system, health care and welfare.
The letter said the only thing in Valdese that will grow, if the town allows alcoholic beverage sales, are the tax, crime and death rates and drug traffic.

Alcohol proponents kick up campaign

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