BENTON COUNTY : Liquor laws keep club owners hopping
Posted on Sunday, November 30, 2008
ROGERS — Operating a private club in Arkansas’ “wettest dry county” requires frequent road trips and paying more for liquor, but that’s the cost of doing business, Benton County club owners say.
“After a while, you just get used to doing it,” said Wendell Franklin, owner of The Bayou of Rogers.
Franklin drives a pickup 34 miles round trip to Tontitown Liquor Store in Washington County at least once a week, and sometimes four times a week, to pick up supplies.
“If you follow the rules, everything is OK,” he said.
“You just have to plan a little better than you would if you were in a wet county,” said Gary Harp, director of security and holder of the liquor permit for Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers.
The season between Thanksgiving and Christmas is especially busy for many of the 122 private clubs in Benton County. And club owners have been preparing for the festivities.
The Bayou posted $ 343, 142 in liquor sales last year — seventh among private clubs in Rogers — based on the city’s supplemental alcoholic beverage tax collections. The Bayou’s liquor sales were 5 percent higher in December 2007 than during the previous month.
Pinnacle Country Club had $ 294, 236 in sales last year, ranking it as No. 8 in Rogers. December sales were up 35 percent from November.
“We do a lot of Christmas parties this time of year,” Harp said.
But driving to neighboring counties to buy liquor from retail stores costs Benton County clubs more in time, gasoline and liquor costs.
Under Section 5. 32 of the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Division regulations, stores that sell liquor to private clubs must be retailers that have a basic wholesaling permit from the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, a division of the U. S. Treasury. Those stores usually charge slightly more than wholesalers that aren’t also retailers.
Also, Section 3. 19 (6 ) of the state regulations prevents retailers from delivering alcohol to destinations in dry counties, so Benton County club owners have to pick up their supplies from an Arkansas retailer and transport them to the club. As far as Arkansas law and the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division is concerned, private clubs are “dispensers” of alcoholic beverages, not retailers.
“We had to spend $ 9, 000 to buy a pickup truck,” said Sheri Mozes, co-owner of Boomers Time Out in Bentonville, which opened in October. “We got a good deal. It’s a big [Dodge ] Ramcharger V 8, and it loves gas.”
Mozes said Louise Schoenthal, her mother-in-law and co-owner of the club, drives to Tontitown Liquor four to six times a week to pick up supplies.
“We’re spending a lot of money just to get the alcohol to sell it,” Mozes said. “We’re paying a lot of money to be able to operate in Bentonville.”
Over the past 60 years, several efforts to bring liquor stores to Benton County have failed. Since 1993, Act 243 has required that 38 percent of registered voters sign petitions for the “wet” issue to appear on the ballot. That’s up from a 15 percent petition requirement from 1942 until 1985, and a 30 percent requirement from 1985 to 1993.
Earlier this year, a group called Citizens for Choice began a petition drive to put the wet issue on the November ballot, but they only gathered 12, 000-15, 000 signatures, said David Routon of Bella Vista, president of the organization. More than 36, 000 signatures were needed to send the issue to the voters.
With the 38 percent requirement, Benton County is likely to stay dry for the foreseeable future unless a very intensive effort is put forth to gather the necessary signatures.
“I’d rather slam my head in a car door” than launch another petition drive on the issue, Routon said.
He said most people he talked to wanted the county to go wet, but they didn’t want to say that publicly. If the county remains dry, it will lose out on entertainment venues such as arenas and stadiums, for which beer companies often are sponsors, he said.
Rogers Mayor Steve Womack said he’s heard that argument and has seen private clubs that seem to operate effectively in stadiums in other cities.
“I kind of like the way things are, personally,” he said. “I like the private club set-up. I like that we don’t have liquor stores on every corner.”
But, Womack said, he believes the citizens of Benton County have the right to decide the wet-dry issue, and requiring signatures from 38 percent of registered voters is restrictive.
“I do think that the people ought to have the opportunity to weigh in and have a say,” Womack said.
Womack said Benton County “has validated” the idea that private clubs can operate successfully in a dry county in Arkansas. That was important for Rogers, which serves as a destination city for suppliers to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville.
“I think we have proven that you can have a dry county and still develop economically,” Womack said. “How much more so would it be if Benton County were wet ? I don’t have an answer to that question.”
“Of course it should be wet,” said Wanda Thompson, a manager at Fred’s Hickory Inn in Bentonville. “Just think of all the money we lose to Missouri. It’s just ridiculous.”
Thompson said she doesn’t believe going “wet” would have much effect on Fred’s, a restaurant and private club.
“That’s just part of the dining experience, having a nice bottle of wine to drink,” she said.
But it would save time and money on trips to County Line Liquor in Springdale, where the restaurant buys supplies, Thompson said.
“We just wouldn’t have to drive as far,” she said. “Instead, we would have an account with someone in town.” Fred’s Hickory Inn had $ 135, 803 in alcohol sales last year, ranking it as No. 6 among private clubs in Bentonville, according to tax figures. Franklin said he doesn’t care if Benton County remains dry or becomes wet, but there would be some advantages to going wet. The main benefit is that residents would no longer have to drive to neighboring counties to buy liquor from stores, and that could cut down on the number of people who drink and drive, Franklin said.
Becoming a wet county also might cut down on the amount of taxes that dispensers of liquor in Benton County have to pay, Franklin said. When a customer buys a drink at The Bayou, about 30 percent of the cost goes for state, county and city taxes, he said.
“You’re not making a lot of money selling liquor in Benton County,” said Franklin. “The city gets a big chunk of that, and the county gets a big chunk of that.”
Among dry counties statewide, Faulkner County ranks second in number of private clubs with 25. Pulaski County, which is wet, has 65.
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