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E-mail This StoryA pair of alcohol sales-related propositions have been placed on the Nov. 6 election ballot, which will allow voters to weigh proposals for sale of beer and wine for off-site consumption and the sale of mixed beverages in restaurants by food and beverage certificate holders, removing the use of the private club status.
The Mesquite City Council called for the election as required by law, following verification of the required petition signatures on both propositions.
“I think the benefits of these proposals are our ability to preserve our position in the Metroplex and continue to grow,” said Greg Noschese, co-chair of Save Our Stores, the political action committee formed to support both initiatives.
Both proposals are opposed by Save Our Community, a political action group of citizens.
“We are definitely against it,” said Randy Lawson, treasurer for Save Our Community. “We realize the city council couldn’t do anything about this if they wanted to because of law. They had the signatures they needed by law. We don’t think having beer and wine in Mesquite is a good thing.”
Save Our Stores contends the proposals, and especially the one for the sale of beer and wine for off-site consumption, is about economic development. They point to grocery stores which have closed and city sales tax revenues dropping.
Noschese indicates passing both propositions will result in the continued ability to deliver services and infrastructure which he says the Mesquite community has come to expect. Both the Mesquite fire and police associations have contributed to Save Our Stores.
Save Our Stores was required by law to procure 7,584 petition signatures and Noschese indicates the group had in excess of 8,200 signatures on both propositions.
“We’re really looking forward to getting those who signed the petitions to vote in November,” Noschese said. “We’re very excited with how things look. We are going to be focused on getting out the vote. The way we see it, we have 8,200 supporters now.”
Signatures were verified by the city secretary during a 30-day period which ended Sept. 1 and the city council took action Tuesday to call the election on both propositions.
The difference between the groups seems to be based on economics. Save Our Stores bases its desire to present the proposition to voters on economic development. Save Our Community disputes that stores have closed because of the absence of alcohol sales.
“We feel the next couple of months is going to be very important for us to get our message out about why beer and wine sales is not a good thing,” Lawson said.
Save Our Community formed after petitions began to circulate and plans to meet every two weeks through the election. Information on the group is available at www.saveourcommunities.net. Save Our Stores has not yet launched a Web presence.
The proposition to allow sales of beer and wine for off-site consumption has passed in the neighboring communities of Balch Springs, Dallas, Garland, Rowlett and Sachse. Save Our Stores contends sales tax dollars are being lost to these cities.
Save Our Community debates the statement that Mesquite is already surrounded by cities which have approved beer and wine sales for off-site consumption. Lawson points to Forney and Rockwall as neighboring communities without beer and wine sales. A petition for beer and wine sales for off-site consumption circulated in Sunnyvale this year to procure the necessary signatures to reach the ballot.
With 8,200 plus signatures from registered voters, Save Our Stores indicates it can win the election. Noschese believes the 8,200 votes would be sufficient to win if all were to vote and adds that “there are still plenty of others that didn’t sign the petition which are in support of it. We will work as hard as we can to get everyone to vote.”
Contact Brian Porter at bporter@acnpapers.com or visit www.scntx.com to comment on this story.
