The Smithville City Council began discussion on ordinances to regulate liquor sales in the city at a recent workshop at City Hall.

The mayor and aldermen met after a last Monday’s special-called meeting to mull over the possibilities they face in setting rules for retail package stores in the city limits. Package liquor sales were approved by city voters in a November referendum.

City voters decided on two referendums concerning the sale of alcohol in the city, approving one referendum asking voters to choose "to permit retail package stores to sell alcoholic beverages in Smithville" or "not to permit retail package stores to sell alcoholic beverages in Smithville," with 406 votes in favor of the measure, and 401 against.

In the second referendum, voters cast ballots for or against “legal sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises in Smithville." Voters cast 397 votes in favor of that measure, and 412 votes against.

Licenses to sell liquor in Tennessee are issued exclusively by the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Commission (ABC), but municipalities retain control of some local regulations. Local governments may set rules such minimum distance requirements between liquor stores and churches and schools, the number of stores, the size of the businesses, and residency requirements for those eligible to apply for a license.

Many members of the council said that they felt the market would not support very many stores, and that a limit on stores would probably be unnecessary. "I think even if we don't set a limit,” Alderman Jason Murphy said, “I would bet we still wouldn't have more than three stores. I don't think we would have the business to support more than that.”

"I don't think it would be right to set a limit,” Alderman Gayla Hendrix opined. “There's not going to be many people to qualify for a license, and putting a limit on it is showing discrimination. It's going to fix itself.”

Alderman Danny Washer told his fellow members that he didn’t feel that a limit should be set either. “Who will decide who gets it and who doesn’t? I don't want to be the one to decide,” Washer said.

While Alderman Shawn Jacobs told the board that he would rather see a legal limit of three stores enacted, he acknowledged that he was in the minority when it came to the wishes of the rest of the council, he also said that he felt advertising restrictions similar to those the city of Crossville imposes on stores selling liquor should be adopted locally as well.

"I know I am in the minority, but I'd like to go on record and say that I would like to see the advertising restrictions be similar to what Crossville has, and I would like to see a limit of three stores," Jacobs told the board members.

The Crossville ordinance requires that advertising inside the business not be visible from the street.

Mayor Jimmy Poss told the aldermen that while he has no official vote in the matter, he also feels that limiting the number of store in not necessary. "It'll be up to you guys,” the mayor said, “but I don't think we need to limit it. I think it will play itself out.”

In the discussion on residency requirements, the aldermen seemed to favor something similar to Mount Juliet's rules, which states that applicants must have lived in the city for at least two years or in the county for at least five years to apply for a license. The aldermen generally agreed that minimum distance requirements should be the same as for stores selling beer in the city limits, which is 400 feet from churches, schools and gathering places.

City Administrator Hunter Hendrixson and City Attorney Vester Parsley agreed to prepare some possible ordinances to be discussed by the board at their regular meeting on Jan. 5.