Alcohol measure on ballot resisted
Posted on Tuesday, September 9, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/236857/
Two Sharp County residents have filed lawsuits in attempts to keep an alcohol issue off the county’s November ballot, including one who requested a temporary injunction Monday that would delay the referendum if a judge cannot rule on it by the Nov. 4 election.
The lawsuits, filed Friday afternoon in Sharp County Circuit Court, challenge both the wording of the petition and the signatures gathered by proponents of a move to allow the sale of alcohol in the north Arkansas county.
Boone and Clark counties also have alcohol measures on the ballot. No organized opposition has surfaced yet in either county.
Several groups in Benton County have tried twice since 2005 to get the issue on the ballot, failing both times to gather the 36, 600 signatures — 38 percent of registered voters — needed on petitions to get a proposal on the ballot.
Ruth Reynolds, a retired Cherokee Village environmentalist, said allowing alcohol sales in Sharp County would reduce vehicle emissions because people wouldn’t have to drive as far to buy spirits.
Her petition reflects her environmental concerns, noting that local alcohol sales would limit the use of gasoline and carbon monoxide emissions. Presently, people in Sharp County must travel to Newport, Mountain Home or Thayer, Mo., to purchase alcohol.
“We were sitting around one day last year talking about what we could do to cut back global warming,” Reynolds said. “I thought of this, and away we went.”
Reynolds and others in her nonprofit group, Save Energy and Reap Taxes, gathered 4, 620 names in 11 months. She needed 38 percent of the number of people who voted in the last Sharp County election, or 4, 369 names, to place the proposal on the ballot.
Tonya Powell, a Sharp County deputy clerk, said the signatures were certified last week.
David Blair, a Batesville at- torney who filed the injunction to stop the vote if the issue has not been ruled upon, said the petition’s wording focused more on the environment than on alcohol and was misleading.
“We do not believe the actual petition was worded in the conformity prescribed by statute,” Blair said. “People signed it without realizing what they were signing.”
Johnnie Copeland, a Mountain Home attorney, questions who actually signed the petition. She alleges at least one signature was from someone who had died.
“We have an issue with that,” said Copeland, who represents Morris Street of Ash Flat. Blair represents Yota Shaw, a rural Sharp County resident who lives between Cave City and Strawberry, in Lawrence County.
Lawrence Reynolds, Ruth Reynolds’ husband and secretary of the nonprofit group, said the signature gathering process was done correctly.
“There’s no more honest person on the earth than my wife,” he said. “That’s a bunch of bull. It’s a frivolous lawsuit.”
A similar attempt to place a “wet-dry” issue on the Izard County ballot failed Friday, when proponents were unable to gather enough signatures.
Proponents of making Boone County wet turned in petitions Friday; clerks there have until Sept. 15 to certify them and receive any opposition.
In Clark County, Arkadelphia attorney Andy Berry turned in 6, 160 signatures in support of a ballot initiative. Only 4, 140 signatures are necessary to get it on the ballot.
The Clark County clerk’s office is reviewing the signatures to determine how many are valid. County Clerk Rhonda Cole said she hopes to be done Thursday.
Berry and county officials said they heard that someone plans to submit an objection to the petition, but as of Monday nothing had been filed.
Clark County Judge Ron Daniel said it’s too controversial an issue to get involved with.
“I’ve got my heinie chewed out both ways,” he said. “I’m just neutral.”
In Sharp County, both attorneys claim the wording of Reynolds ’ petition was misleading because it touted the gas-saving benefits of alcohol sales in the county.
“Several who signed the petition said they thought they were signing something for the good of the environment — not a wetdry issue,” Copeland said. “They thought the basis of this was an environmental issue. It’s not.”
If Sharp County Circuit Judge Harold Erwin allows the issue to be placed on the ballot, Ruth Reynolds said she thinks she has a 50-50 chance of winning.
“It’ll be close,” she said. “My passion for the environment kept me driving for names.” Information for this article was contributed by Ginny LaRoe of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.