Petitioners Want Alcohol Elections In May For Grand Saline, Fruitvale

GRAND SALINE — Local proponents of legalized alcoholic beverage sales are giving it another try in at least two cities.

On Tuesday, Van Zandt County Clerk Charlotte Bledsoe confirmed that full petition forms for local option elections have been obtained for possible May 2010 elections in Grand Saline and Fruitvale.

Both cities were included in a Precinct 1 local option election earlier this month, in which all three alcoholic beverage sales proposals were defeated.

Bledsoe said the groups behind this new effort are seeking the same three sales options: beer and wine for off-premise consumption, all alcoholic beverages for off-premise consumption and mixed beverages for on-premise consumption by food and beverage certificate holders.

The Fruitvale petition drive has created a bit of extra work determining the number of registered voters because, as she explained, that city has not held an election since 2001.

"We issued a petition form based on about 240 registered voters who are or could be in the city," Bledsoe said.

Petitioners for a local option election have to gain the signatures of at least 35 percent of voters who voted in the last gubernatorial election. Bledsoe said that target number for Fruitvale will be around 30, while in Grand Saline the petitioners will need 149 signatures.

The petitioners in both cities have a 60-day period to obtain enough signatures to return the form to the county clerk’s office. The deadline will be Jan. 20, Bledsoe said, a day later than the exact period because Jan. 19 falls on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the courthouse will be closed.

Meanwhile, the Wills Point restaurant owner who began a local option election petition in September said Wednesday he was ready to turn it in to the county clerk’s office.

Dean Ouimet, owner of Lone Star Grill, said he had 97 signatures, 15 more than the 82 required to present the petition to county commissioners for the setting of an election in May.

"The process was pretty easy," Ouimet said. "They (petition signers) came to me for the most part and I approached customers in my restaurant who had asked about it earlier.

"I had a lot of customers who said they would like to sign it, but could not because they did not live inside the city," he added.

Ouimet admitted he had lost some customers protesting his effort to bring the issue to a vote, particularly members of nearby Trinity Baptist Church in Wills Point.

"I have not seen any of them in since the news first came out, but I respect their prerogative," he said.

Other than that, he said he has not met with much negative response.

"Of those I asked about signing the petition, I was turned down only four times and those were local business people just trying to be politically correct," Ouimet said.

In a May election earlier this year, Wills Point became the first city in Van Zandt County since the Prohibition Era to legalize alcoholic beverage sales. Voters approved the sale of beer and wine for off-premise consumption in that election.

It will take about 30 days for the county clerk’s office to verify petition signatures. Once validated, the petition will go before the Van Zandt County Commissioners’ Court for ratification and an election will be set.