Alcohol issue back on tap in Pittsylvania County

Pittsylvania County’s prohibition on Sunday beer and wine sales is putting a strain on local businesses, according to at least one member of the Board of Supervisors.
Callands-Gretna Supervisor Fred Ingram said he wants to look into changing the ban on Sunday alcohol sales.
The topic is an agenda item for the Board of Supervisors’ work session to be held at noon today in Chatham.
“It’s just for discussion to see how the board feels about it,” Ingram said.
He said allowing beer-and-wine sales in the county would help small businesses and compel tourists to spend a little more money in the area.
Visitors and residents who want to purchase beer or wine, on what many consider a day of worship, must venture out of the county.
“It’s important they stop at our local businesses rather than go out of the county,” Ingram said.
Alcohol is an incendiary topic in conservative, religious Pittsylvania County.
Supervisors have put the question of repealing the ban on Sunday beer/wine sales before voters twice since 1992. It failed both times.
State code, however, allows supervisors to bypass a referendum and reverse the ban with a simple 4-3 vote, Curtis Coleburn, chief operating officer for the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, said Monday.
Davis said he wouldn’t vote for a repeal even if the state permits it.
“I’d want to send it to the voters,” Davis said.
He said the sale of alcohol is a controversial moral issue in the county and that he would “feel sorry for the supervisor who didn’t put that before the voters.”
Area churches worked to defeat proposed ban reversals in the past, Davis said.
Ingram said he agrees that the decision should lie with the voters.
“The people’s choice is very important to us,” Ingram said. “We (supervisors) represent the people; we don’t represent ourselves.”
Banister Supervisor William Pritchett declined to give his opinion on the idea of reversing the Sunday sales ban, but said the prohibition doesn’t stop residents who want to imbibe.
They drive to Danville or other areas that allow Sunday sales, he said.
In addition, the ban can pose a danger of drinking and driving, Pritchett said.
Davis, who recently led a county effort to ask the state to close its only ABC store before supervisors rescinded their vote, questions the advantages of lifting the ban.
“I’m not sure if it would be a tremendous benefit to the county,” he said.
Contact John R. Crane at jcrane@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7987.