News - Local/State

Saturday, Oct. 04, 2008

York County businesses support selling alcohol

Referendum for Sunday sales set for Nov. 4

LAKE WYLIE — About a half-dozen business leaders from Rock Hill, Fort Mill and Lake Wylie gathered Friday at the Lake Wylie Chamber of Commerce to declare their support for the Nov. 4 referendum on Sunday alcohol sales countywide.

“It has a huge economic impact,” Chet Miller, campaign co-chairman for Citizens & Business for York County, said of countywide Sunday sales. “Needless to say, it generates more jobs.”

Opponents, however, still aren’t swayed by the possible economic benefits of Sunday sales.

“We just don’t believe anything that promotes alcohol consumption is a good thing,” said Mike O’Dell, director of missions for the York Baptist Association.

The two-year process to get the issue on the ballot required supporters to gather 7,500 signatures.

The group gathered 9,000 signatures touting increased tax revenue, decreased unemployment, recruiting of national restaurants and — most importantly, they say — personal choice.

Jeff Brown, managing partner at Outback Steakhouse in Rock Hill, said his business is a testament to the need for change.

After years of not being allowed Sunday sales, Outback began serving alcohol when Rock Hill passed a similar rule allowing the practice. While Sunday once was the least busy day of the week, now it ranks behind only Saturday and Friday, Brown said.

Brown is able to pay his employees more for work on Sunday or add hours, which he believes helps his community as dollars change hands. “All of this money is getting spent and re-spent in York County,” he said.

Howard Davis tells a different tale with the same lesson. Davis owns Strikers Family Sportscenter just outside the Rock Hill city limits. That means county rules apply.

“We have missed the opportunity of hosting five major bowling tournaments because of not having Sunday alcohol sales,” Davis said.

Recently, Davis said, he tracked a bowling tournament in Charleston attended by 20 local teams. Those teams spent $49,500 just in the weekend of the tournament. That type of money and more could come to York County restaurants and hotels if not for the current law against Sunday sales, Davis said.

Amy Bovender, owner of Six Pence Pub in Fort Mill and an organizer of the recent petition drive, said three weeks ago, her restaurant had four tables walk out on Sunday brunch after learning no alcohol was allowed.

“We really should be closed,” said Bovender of Sunday business.

In Lake Wylie, which borders Mecklenburg and Gaston counties in North Carolina — both of which allow Sunday sales — the issue is critical, leaders say.

“We’ve faced a level of competition across the state line that’s just not fair,” said David Mathein, general manager of T-Bones on the Lake.

Still, business owners are not relying solely on their personal plights as a call for change. They want voters to look at their own lives.

“It’s an individual rights issue,” Davis said. “We have the right as individuals to choose what we want to do for lunch and whether we want to have a drink.”

Business leaders Friday were optimistic that, after previous failed attempts to change the Sunday alcohol law, a new day will come. But there’s likely to be strong opposition.

“Our pastors will definitely ask their people to oppose it,” said O’Dell of the Baptist Association. “That’s just a given.”

Still, supporters remain hopeful.

“I believe it’ll pass, as long as people focus on the tax impact and what we’re losing, county and state,” Mathein said.