Tuesday’s Election Could Bring Alcohol To Some Parts Of Canton

CANTON—How is this for a bit of Election Day irony? The area of Precinct 1 with the fewest registered voters may be the most impacted if alcohol sales are legalized.

In what could be the most bizarre aspect of all in the election, a largely commercial section of Canton could suddenly attain "wet" status if any of three propositions are approved by Precinct 1 voters on Tuesday.

The area in question lies mostly between State Highway 19 and Farm-to-Market Road 17, with the addition of a dogleg area that borders the east side of the Van Zandt County Courthouse, crosses back over SH 19 at Tyler Street and cuts through Dog Alley before rejoining SH 64.

However, that part of Canton contains convenience stores and restaurants — some of which would geographically face competitors that would still be in a "dry" area — as well as Old Mill Marketplace, The Mountain and Mill Creek Ranch and RV Resort.

It is a situation that has many Canton residents wondering what will happen in the long term if alcohol sales are approved, and has opponents to alcohol sales very worried.

Dr. Mark Moore, pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in Canton, said he is not only opposed to Canton becoming a wet city on moral grounds, but out of concern for public safety on First Monday Trade Days weekends.

"I don’t want to begin to think what First Monday could turn into if liquor is being sold in some stores and restaurants. I feel we already don’t have enough law enforcement for that weekend," he said.

"I’ve been concerned for years for people’s safety during First Monday anyway. You see some (pedestrians) crossing Highway 19 almost like they would a back pasture, and I wish there was some way to build an overhead crosswalk or something to make it safer," Moore added.

He said he also feels the potential presence of liquor stores or beer and wine in convenience stores would "cheapen" the overall appearance of the city.

"I’m talking about all the displays in stores, bars in restaurants, all the signage…all the advertising that could spring up on Interstate 20," said Moore, who has previously lived in wet cities and counties and grew up in Tyler — a city, he said, jokingly referred to for years as the "wettest dry city in Texas" because of numerous restaurants with private club licenses to serve alcoholic beverages.

"I want people to stop in Canton because it is a beautiful city, not just to get a drink and then get back on the highway," he added.

Canton City Manager Andy McCuistion said the potential effect on First Monday weekends is already on the minds of city leaders.

"We’ll have to deal with that. From what I’m hearing with other cities, if we wind up having a lot more alcohol (with drivers) on the road, we will have to beef up police coverage…there are some offsets to any benefits from the sales tax revenue," McCuistion said.

Alcoholic beverage sales are not allowed on the city-owned First Monday grounds and specific zoning for that area would keep a sales ban in place, he added.

To understand how this situation has developed, one must understand how the county precinct boundaries are determined. Being the county seat, Canton is the city where all four precincts meet.

Consequently, Canton is split among the precincts and the northeastern section is the one belonging to Precinct 1.

Van Zandt County Clerk Charlotte Bledsoe estimates there are less than a dozen — and that may be a generous number — registered voters in the part of Canton that is included in Tuesday’s local option election.

Precinct 1 makes one other topological reach across SH 19 to take in the city of Edgewood. Because of that, Edgewood residents are eligible to vote in the local option election, while residents outside the city are in Precinct 3 and not included in determining the issue.

But it is the section of the Texas Election Code dealing with local option elections that has opened the door for part of Canton to become wet by the vote of people outside the city. As Bledsoe recently explained in a Van Zandt County Commissioners’ Court meeting, local option elections can be held within a specific city, an entire county or within a specific justice of the peace precinct.

In fact, a local option election within a JP precinct can be petitioned for and set based on the precinct lines past or present. In Montgomery County on Tuesday, a local option election is taking place for JP Precinct 4 as it existed in 1937.

If any of the three options (beer and wine sales for off-premise consumption, all alcoholic beverages for off-premise consumption and mixed beverages for sale in certified restaurants) pass on Tuesday, McCuistion said he sees one of two scenarios following within Canton.

"There will probably be an effort, one of two specifically, to make it (Canton) dry, if passage of any of these options happens on Tuesday. That would be a citywide election….The other possibility, again if one of these options does pass, is that we will see another petition probably asking for the parts of Canton in the other precincts to become wet as well," he explained.

"Either way, we will have a better idea of what the citizens want here," McCuistion added.

Those gearing up for a possible citywide prohibition election will not find much solace in recent statistics on similar efforts across Texas. In the last six years, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission shows only nine prohibition elections held in wet cities or areas.

Of those, only two were successful, and two other prohibition efforts failed to garner enough petition signatures to set an election.

"Once you open the door, it’s pretty hard to shut it," Moore said.

Pressure could also mount from store and restaurant owners in other parts of Canton to allow alcohol sales there.

"Yes, that could happen for equity reasons, possibly," McCuistion said. "If businesses in one part of the city can sell alcohol, there may be an outcry to let others compete with them."

McCuistion also noted that if a citywide prohibition election next year were successful, it could have some unintended consequences.

"If the citizens were to go ahead and vote it dry in that (Precinct 1) area, there are properties right outside the city limits where someone could set up liquor stores," he said. "The city limit runs in and out of a lot of these areas...You might be able to prohibit it in the downtown area, but there are some other areas right outside the city that are adjacent to us, so we may not be that much better off," he said.

In May, voters in Wills Point approved beer and wine sales for off-premise consumption and stores in that city and have been selling those items for about four months.

Edgewood, Grand Saline and Canton itself are not completely dry cities now. There are state-licensed Texas wineries in Edgewood and Canton, and a restaurant with a private club license in both Canton and Grand Saline.

Even with those exceptions, Moore said he is hopeful the days of a dry Canton will remain a while longer, adding that he, as a Christian minister, has seen the negative effects of alcohol abuse on individuals and families.

"In the reality of the situation, I know one day it’s coming here," he said about legalized alcoholic beverage sales. "As I often tell people, I was born at night, just not last night.

"But it doesn’t have to mean that I just open the door and allow it to happen," Moore added. "The longer we can postpone it, the more lives and families we save and the longer we keep the beautiful community we have."

NOTE: See the November 5, Canton Herald for election results.