City, stores begin alcohol sales process

By Randy Grider
randy@casscountynow.com

When will you start seeing beer and wine in Atlanta stores?
It will likely be a few weeks as city officials work through its legal obligations and stores secure permits as well as preparing their respective facilities to accommodate inventory.
Atlanta citizens voted to legalize off-premise beer and wine sales during last week’s general election.  The measure passed with 53.63 percent voting in favor and 46.37 voting against -- 1,019 to 881.
Atlanta City Manager David Cockrell met with Nash city officials the day after the election to discuss how that municipality transitioned from dry to wet in 2014. Cockrell said Texas Petition Strategies is also providing technical assistance.
“We are going to present the relative ordinances to the city council in timely manner,” Cockrell said. “We have to prepare ordinances for our council meet and comport with state law.”
Cockrell said the ordinances will contain regulations that govern beer and wine sales.
“There will be regulations on permits, fee and hours of sales and those type issues,” Cockrell said.
He said regulations adopted by the city will have to fit within the framework of Texas law pertaining to alcohol sales.
Cockrell said for all those reason, he didn’t want to give a specific, or even estimated, date of when residents can legally purchase alcohol in Atlanta.
“I don’t like to guess,” Cockrell said. “It’s not likely we will be the folks holding up anything because retailers have certain things they need to go through, whether it’s hiring architects, engineers, electricians and that kind of thing to get cooling systems and storage facilities ready for inventory. It would not surprise me if that process didn’t take as long or longer than our process.”