Wine Wars

Fannin county (where we live) JUST passed an ordinance allowing the sale of beer and wine in restaurants. Hello.......welcome to the real world. So, needless to say there are PLENTY of folk around here that are extreemly unhappy about this - this being the bible belt and all. But, the funny thing about it is that you can already buy beer and wine in stores - so it's already here and has been here. Apparently there is just some sort of problem about it being in restaurants.

Now, this is a big deal - not only because of the religious hoopla - but because of jobs. This county is losing jobs like crazy and restaurants and other businesses are closing down. In a small town like this, jobs just aren't easy to come by (especially in this economy) so the people around here are really hurting. Enter beer and wine..............

Bringing beer and wine to the restaurants will help with the jobs here tremendously. This place is a tourist town - that's how the local businesses make their money. Well, people come here for a little while then they leave and go to the next town over to have lunch and a beer or glass of wine. There isn't much to choose from since restaurants keep closing down. Instead, they should be shopping here, stopping for a nice lunch and glass of wine in a local restaurant and then wandering around for more shopping and such.

Restaurants don't want to come here because they can't make any money. Other businesses don't want to come here because there aren't restaurants serving beer and wine to draw people to the town and shopping centers. So what does our county commission do? They vote DOWN the alcohol ordinance again and again - despite a clear majority of the citizens of this town wanting it because they are desperate for jobs and help with the local economy.

After the last vote where it did not pass the citizens were outraged and the commissioner that voted against it (after he said he would vote for it if there was enough support) was blasted and consequently resigned due to everyone being ticked. Good riddance. The remaining members immediately had another vote and passed it - with no help from our slack mayor who needs to GO. I don't care where - just GO. This guy was caught with a cock fighting ring and then RE-ELECTED! He is also about 120 years old. Come on people.............

Anyhow - now we have a new commissioner who is all ticked about the alcohol thing passing and is petitioning the state to have it rescinded and refuses to even vote on anything involving alcohol. It's ridiculous. So, I fired off a letter to the local paper - The News Observer - and of course, with this being a slow news town and all, it was published. Here it is.

Garnett Webb needs to get with the progam. He has been elected to a LEADERSHIP position and he is showing anything but. Perhaps someone needs to remind him of the meaning of the word. It means to lead your community with integrity and check your personal feelings at the door. The man has been hired to uphold an office and to vote on things that are important to this community. Even if one disagrees, he should still vote. The time for inaction is passed. The time for not standing up for the things that, as an elected official, you feel are best for your community is passed. The time for looking out for your own interests and personal feelings, faith based or not, has passed. Garnett Webb needs to buck up, listen to the members of this community and do the right thing. When did it become so difficult for people to simply do the right thing?

I got a lot of "congratulations" on the letter but of course, it ticked some people off. We went to the county commissioners meeting on Tuesday night expecting there to be some fireworks as I was not the only one who wrote such a similar letter to the paper.

Dudes. The meeting was at 6. We got there at about 5:55. They wouldn't let me in with my deadly weapons - knitting needles - so I had to take them back to the car. We got upstairs to the meeting at about 6:03. I picked up an agenda to see where we were and the meeting was HALF OVER! I was wondering if maybe we got the time wrong. No no. Really, it was half over. At 6:09 we were already in our car heading home.

BUT - Mr. Slack Commissioner voted on everything - including a motion to grant a serving license to a restaurant who had met all the local requirements.

Ha!! I claim success!!