Booze won big. Jessamine County among several KY places to vote ‘wet’ by wide margins
.JPG "Alcohol sales now allowed in Jessamine County and the city of Stanford.")
In a general election with a lot of uncertainty and close races, voters in Jessamine County and several other places in Kentucky agreed on one thing: They no longer wanted to live in a place that doesn’t sell alcohol.
In Jessamine County, 72 percent of voters said they approved of alcohol sales in the county. Twenty-eight percent voted against, according to unofficial results. The city of Nicholasville, the Jessamine County seat, already allows alcohol sales.
The referendum does not apply to the city of Wilmore, which is dry.
Fayette County residents will likely benefit from Jessamine County’s vote. The Bellerive Plaza, just over the Fayette County line on Harrodsburg Road, is in Jessamine County. That means Kroger and other restaurants — or potential restaurants — in that shopping plaza will be able to sell or serve alcohol by the glass.
Brannon Crossing, also just over the Fayette County line on Nicholasville Road, is in the city of Nicholasville. Restaurants and businesses there can sell alcohol.
Jessamine County Judge-Executive David West said the ban on alcohol sales had also hurt other businesses in the county. “Equestrian Woods has said they had to constantly turn away weddings because they were not able to serve alcohol,” West said. Equestrian Woods is a country club just over the Fayette County line.
The county has already started work on a local ordinance allowing for the sale of alcohol, West said. It has an Alcohol Beverage Control Administrator but will also have to hire an ABC enforcement officer.
“There will not be a liquor store on every county road,” West stressed. West said it would likely take several months for an ordinance to be passed and go through all the appropriate ABC sign-offs.
“We don’t want to rush this,” West said. “We don’t want any missteps.”
Voters in Stanford, the Lincoln County seat, with a population of about 3,700 people, also voted overwhelmingly to allow alcohol sales. Preliminary vote totals show 61 percent of voters approved of alcohol sales, with 39 percent voting no.
Stanford elected leaders will have to draft and pass local ordinances allowing for alcohol sales. Then it must go to state ABC officials for final sign-offs and approval of licenses.
Daryl Day, the Lincoln County attorney, said that process takes time.
“It’s unlikely that we will see alcohol served in Stanford for at least six months,” Day said.
Day said a local historian told him the last time alcohol was sold in Stanford was in 1937.
“The last time you could buy a drink in Stanford was 83 years ago,” Day said.
Residents in Wayne County also voted Tuesday to approve the sale of alcohol countywide, with 4,899 voting yes and 3,995 voting no.
Judge-Executive Mike Anderson said Thursday it could be several months before legal sales start. The fiscal court must adopt an ordinance setting conditions such as legal sales hours and approve an administrator.
Anderson said the county’s population would qualify it for eight package liquor stores.
Supporters of the measure said legal sales could help with jobs. The county is on Lake Cumberland and tourism is a significant piece of the economy.
Bath County voters also approved legal sales by a margin of 3,137 to 2,438 just three years after narrowly turning back a similar push, said Judge-Executive Bobby C. Rogers.
The county was the only spot along Interstate 64 from Louisville to Ashland that was legally dry before this election, Rogers said.
If the county gets its ordinance in place it could be legally wet in January, said Rogers, who supported the move as an economic-development measure.
“You’d be surprised what alcohol brings to a community,” Rogers said.
This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 10:58 AM.
