Voters may decide alcohol ballot question

Booze in the dry township? It’s possible

Registered voters in the township may soon find someone knocking on their door asking if they would like a drink.

More specifically, they will be asking them if they would like the opportunity to vote on buying a drink within the township.

Tuesday was the first day that Township Supervisor Michael Moyer and several other volunteers began knocking on doors seeking signatures on two petitions.

The first petition relates to liquor sales, the second petition to beer sales.

They need a lot of signatures to put the questions to the voters, about whether the township should allow liquor and beer sales.

That’s because the law requires

the signatures of 25 percent of those who voted in the last year’s election to put the matter on the spring primary ballot on May 16.

Given the high voter turnout in the last presidential election, the number of signatures Moyer and his volunteers must collect in this town of roughly 1,600 people is 871.

“Getting this matter on the ballot is going to be the hardest part,” said Moyer, who has until the first week of March to get the required signatures.

“Personally, I think people will vote for it overwhelmingly, but we need to get the matter in front of the voters first,” he said.

Some of The Mercury’s Facebook readers agree.

“If there is a business that is conducive to the sale of alcohol, why not?” asked Andrew Hans.

“Knock down that hideous mess on the corner of 724/Peterman Road and put in a ‘Cheers’” wrote Jennifer O’Connor.

That is exactly what Moyer hopes will happen he said.

“The old Pizza World site is perfect for an Outback or Olive Garden,” he said.

But not every one is convinced.

“No, keep it the way it is. Enough places around sell beer/liquor people can drive to get,” Sunshine Moore posted.

“I lived in East Coventry growing up. I’d much rather the fields, space and quiet — over the opposite option,” posted Erin Flanagan Galamba.

And some just find puzzling.

“I find this quite bizarre. Yes I am British, but I live in Upper Pottsgrove,” posted Jane Evans.

“Why oh why is the sale of alcohol normally, in supermarkets such a big deal. I know that someone is going to blind me with ‘science’ now with figures for alcohol related crime, but it I honestly don’t think it’s availability makes a difference,” Evans wrote.

Since Prohibition was lifted in 1933, East Coventry has been a dry town, voting in the same year the amendment was overturned to outlaw liquor sales, and beer sales one year later, Moyer said.

In fact, Chester County has 23 municipalities that ban the sale of alcohol.

But Moyer thinks it’s time the current generation of residents had an opportunity to answer that question for themselves.

“I will accept whatever the voters want to do,” Moyer said, noting that both East Nantmeal and Warwick townships have held similar votes.

His argument is that the inability to sell liquor is impeding the commercial development of the Route 724 corridor.

“Generally speaking, when you have more commercial development, you don’t have to raise taxes so much over the years,” he said.