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Oct 22, 2008 5:47 pm US/Central
Beer, Wine Sales On Many N. Texas Ballots
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 News) ―
Several North Texas cities have more than the presidential and congressional races on their ballots the year.
The sale of beer and wine is a patchwork affair in many cities—legal in some parts of town, but illegal in others.
Residents of several cities are being asked if they want to standardize the rules.
In North Fort Worth, a group calling itself the North Fort Worth Alliance is pushing to legalize beer and wine sales throughout the city. Members say their inability to sell alcohol is hurting business. They also say it's depriving residents of the choices that people in other areas have.
"We don't have convenience stores," said Colleen Demel, who's with the group. "We don't have the little mom and pop convenience stores, gas stations."
Demel says the stores haven't opened in her part of Fort Worth because they won't make as much money without beer and wine sales.
Fort Worth has been annexing in this area since 1971. But it hasn't had the legally required vote to extend the city's liquor laws into the new parts of town.
So there's a initiative buried on the November ballot in Fort Worth to bring this patchwork of dry areas under city code.
And it's not just for stores.
Karina Porras works at a North Fort Worth restaurant. "You have to be a member of a certain club to be able to drink because we are in a dry area," she said.
Restaurants can sell beer, if they take the time to fill out paperwork to be entered into a database.
But on busy days, some frustrated customers who don't want to wait for the paperwork drive a mile or so to Keller, where the restaurants don't have to jump through that hoop.
For others, it's not worth the wait or the drive. "We actually have people who say, 'no, forget the drink, I want a regular fountain drink,'" Porras said. "And we lose business there."
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