Voters in the Stokes County town of Walnut Cove will soon have a say on whether to allow mixed beverage sales at restaurants and local places including clubs and restaurants.
The town board voted in August to put the measure on this year's ballot at the request of the owner of a local Mexican restaurant. The owner, Keelan Jones, wants to be able to sell margaritas, which contain tequila and triple sec.
Beer and wine sales are already allowed.
Marian Tilley is the general manager of the town's ABC board. She's not advocating for or against the measure. But she says if it does pass much of the money would stay in the area because there's only one place to buy the alcohol.
“If it's passed then they would buy it in the ABC Store in Stokes County, and we're the only ABC Store in Stokes County," she says. "The more we do, the more money goes back into the town and county.”
She says it's possible that more chain restaurants could be interested in Walnut Cove if mixed drink sales are permitted.
Voters will be asked to vote for or against the referendum "to permit the sales of mixed beverages in hotels, restaurants, private clubs, community theatres and convention centers."
Mixed beverage proposals have always been contentious in the Piedmont's smaller towns, often being met with opposition from religious groups. Two years ago, Jonesville - in Yadkin County - passed a measure like what is now on Walnut Cove's ballot. That passed over the objections of religious leaders who fought against it, and only after two similar efforts failed in 1999 and 2006.
A similar referendum was on Walnut Cove's ballot eight years ago. That measure failed by a vote of 210 to 103. That effort too was opposed by local releigious leaders. Tillley says she hasn't heard as much discussion about this year's effort as she did in 2007.
Walnut Cove's population is about 1,400.