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Wets win in Thomasville
Jackson has been wet since voters approved sales there in 2005. The rest of Clarke County remains legally dry. The vote in Thomasville was 948 "yes" votes to 702 "no" votes, a 246 vote majority or 57 percent. Voters cast ballots by city council districts at the Bashi Road Fire Station and the National Guard Armory. A breakdown by districts can be found on Page 6A. Fight-eight percent of the city's approximately 2,860 registered voters voted. Mayor Sheldon Day had endorsed legalized sales but talked more Tuesday night about the community healing in the wake of the bitter campaign than the win. "The people spoke - and spoke loudly. That will go down as a record turnout for a city election - I know in recent history. Everybody voiced their opinion loud and clear at the ballot box. "Now, I would like to basically let the healing begin," the mayor said. "…We've got to work together. This issue is settled. Let's move on." Day said he did believe that the vote was a "shot in the arm" in making Thomasville more attractive to business and industry. He said it will help the city grow. Rob Moore chaired the drys' "Citizens Against Alcohol Sales in Thomasville" and was at City Hall for the vote tally. "We are disappointed in the outcome," Moore said. "We are thankful for those who worked hard against it [legalized sales] but the majority said that's what they wanted so that's what they will have." Moore said the approximately $1,400 left over in the drys' campaign fund will be given to The Haven, a halfway house for recovering alcoholics and addicts. Day said the city has one of the "strictest alcohol control ordinances in the state" and that work will begin immediately to implement it and an oversight committee that will help issue and regulate alcohol licenses. Day estimated that sales should start by Oct. 1. Thomasville becomes the 17th city in the state to allow alcohol sales within 26 counties in Alabama that are dry. On a related note, the City of Athens, in dry Limestone County in north Alabama, voted to retain its wet status two years after voting wet. Dry forces had sought the revote on the matter. Thomasville wet-dry vote, Aug. 14, 2007
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