State-Journal.com - Lawrenceburg alcohol sales won't hurt us

Frankfort Tourism Director Joy Jeffries says Anderson County Fiscal Court’s 5-1 vote to allow restaurants to sell alcohol by the drink on Sundays won’t hurt restaurants here.

“It will help Anderson County but it won’t hurt us,” Jeffries said. “Nobody is going to leave here to go there to drink. I can’t imagine it would affect us at all.

“It certainly helped our restaurants here when we got it and I’m happy for Anderson County. They’ve worked a long time to get it through. Most of the counties have done this by now. I was pretty proud of our community. It went through pretty peacefully here in 2005.”

Jeffries said her husband is a retired minister and they’re teetotalers. But the Sunday alcohol sales “is an economic issue,” she said.

Their choice not to drink “isn’t really a religious issue,” Jeffries said. “The Bible teaches temperance, not abstinence.”

The city of Lawrenceburg had already approved Sunday alcohol sales in restaurants.

Anderson County’s vote last week ended a year-long debate about the issue. Anderson Fiscal Court also approved allowing the county’s two bourbon distilleries and Lovers Leap Vineyard and Winery to sell their products on Sundays.

Sunday alcohol sales in restaurants are also permitted in neighboring Shelbyville and Shelby County, Versailles and Woodford County and Georgetown.

8.	Posted by bstacy121 December 9, 2009
	There is a choice here on both issues, if you don't smoke or drink go to a place that doesn't allow either. That choice for smokers has been taken away, but not drinkers. I could set and smoke a whole pack of cigarettes in a bar and when I get up and leave my cigarettes aren't going to cause me to kill anyone, or cause me to get abusive. Try that with 20 drinks (same amount as a pack of cigarettes). Yes, I smoke, but it doesn't bother me to go to a place where I can't. It's the law and I abide by it. I would really like to have a choice. I also don't smoke when I am around people who don't. That's called courtsey. I understand some people are bothered by cigarette smoke, but I to am sometimes bothered by some sloppy a** drunk when I am trying to have dinner. Oh, I also have a drink now and then so I'm not trying to get on the band wagon against drinking. Yes, I do drive to Shelbyville sometimes to eat, because there I can smoke in their restaurants. So if I would drive so I can smoke and eat, drinkers are going to drive where they can drink and eat.

4.	Posted by pianoman December 8, 2009
	I am just glad that Frankfort restaurants do not allow smoking at all. I have lung problems and my doctor has advised me to stay away from second-hand smoke. I quit smoking many, many years ago, but had a lung exray and got some bad news. I don't have cancer, but believe me when I say, I do everything I can to stay away from seond-hand smoke and anyone who is smoking.

3.	Posted by trying December 8, 2009
	Well, that never been bothered by people smoking in another section depends on how they were sectioned of. Some places just had a sign on the tables designating them as smoking tables. They still were able to permeate the entire place. But I agree with the rest. Alcohol consumption doesn't cause direct harm to others when you are sitting in the same place with them. Cigarette smoke does.

2.	Posted by Chase Sewell December 8, 2009
	May I ask why? The last time I checked, someone drinking a beer or a glass of wine with their meal never made me want to stop eating. But I do agree that smoking in restaurants is fine as long as they have separate sections. I have never been bothered by people smoking in another section.