Push for booze in one town comes up dry

Only about 300 of the 871 signatures needed were collected

A push in East Coventry for a ballot question on whether to introduce the sale of booze in the township failed.

It looks like township voters will not be voting this spring after all on whether or not to allow liquor sales in the township.

Township Supervisor Michael Moyer reports that he and his volunteers failed to secure the signatures needed to put the question on the May ballot.

“I’m disappointed we didn’t secure the required 871 signatures to make it happen, but that is a lot of signatures to get in a short period of time,” Moyer wrote in an email to Digital First Media.

He wrote that he did not have an exact number, but believes he and his group of volunteers collected only about 300 signatures.

“As you know, democracy is a participatory sport, and we simply didn’t have enough participants to get the job done,” he wrote, adding that he intends to try again in the next election cycle.

Because 2017 is an off-year election — and not a presidential election year — history suggests the number of voters will be much smaller.

Since the law requires the signa-

tures of 25 percent of those who voted in the last election on a petition to put a referendum on the ballot, the number of signatures Moyer will need to collect will likely be much fewer to put the question to the voters on the 2018 ballot.

“I will be at the polls in May to collect the names, phone numbers and email addresses of those who are disappointed by this outcome so they can help us collect signatures for our next effort,” he wrote.

Moyer has said allowing the sale of beer wine and liquor could attract economic

development to the Route 724 corridor.

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

Although there are no municipalities that restrict the sale of alcohol in either Berks or Montgomery counties, Delaware County has 10 boroughs and two townships which ban alcohol sales and Chester County has 23 according to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.

In 2015, two Chester County townships — East Nantmeal and West Nantmeal — voted to allow alcohol sales at golf clubs located in each township.

Both townships still forbid the retail sale of beer and liquor at commercial establishments.

According to a July 18 article in The Main Line Times, “the vast majority of the ordinances restricting liquor sales in Chester and Delaware counties were passed — by referendum, it should be noted — in the years immediately following the end of Prohibition in 1933. Hence, those who had pushed for and supported the ‘Great Experiment’ in 1919 simply went back to work in a new way.”

Statewide, there are 684 dry or partially dry townships, boroughs and cities according to the liquor control board. Most are concentrated in the north central, south central and northwest regions of Pennsylvania.

DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA FILE PHOTO East Coventry Supervisor Michael Moyer believes this site on Route 724, the former Pizza World, could attract a restaurant like Olive Garden if it were allowed to serve alcohol.