Van Buren County, long part of a wall of dry counties in north-central Arkansas, has spent the past six months transitioning to a wet county, bringing an increase in sales tax revenue and excitement.
More than three dozen volunteers spent months collecting enough signatures to get the question on the Nov. 3 ballot. After the initiative survived court challenges, nearly two-thirds of county voters said yes to package alcohol sales for the first time since 1941.
A number of restaurants have had by-the-drink permits, and since January there have been sales of beer and wine from multiple retailers. However, residents are still waiting for the county’s two liquor stores — the maximum allowed by state law based on the county’s population.
Sixteen applications for the retail liquor licenses were submitted to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division. The two lucky applicants selected by lottery on May 5 were Amie Hamilton, who will open ARH Liquor in Fairfield Bay, and Ann Kidd, whose store will be on Highway 65 just north of Damascus and less than 2 miles from the border with dry Faulkner County.
Neither Kidd nor Damascus Mayor L.B. Pavatt could be reached for comment.
Fairfield Bay straddles the line dividing Van Buren and Cleburne counties, but Hamilton’s store will not be on the busiest roadway, Highway 16. The Fairfield Bay store’s address is 133 Beaver Road, a long-vacant convenience store at the intersection of Highway 330 and “The New Road,” the most direct route to Clinton, the county seat. It is also near the Fairfield Bay Marina.
“We’ve had the retail space since 2012,” Hamilton told Arkansas Business. “We bought it back then because the Arkansas Legislature was considering putting on the ballot for municipalities to go wet, and we knew Fairfield Bay — being a resort area — would definitely vote for that.” Hamilton says she has been sitting on the building ever since “waiting on a miracle that actually happened.”
She was right about Fairfield Bay: Voters there favored going wet 4 to 1.
Hamilton, also the owner of AR Sanitation, is remodeling the building in preparation for opening, but she had no set date for sales to begin. The building is about 6,000 SF but only 3,100 SF will be in use to sell liquor, as approved by the ABC.
Hamilton is hoping to attract customers from not only Van Buren County but from surrounding dry counties as well.
Van Buren County Judge Dale James, who said he was neutral in the wet-dry issue, said there haven’t been any negative effects of the county going wet. He says the change in the legal status of alcohol has brought positive outcomes such as a jump in sales tax revenue — more than 20% in April and May, according to the county treasurer — and new businesses developing in town.
“We were tight anyway, so this just helps make the budget a little more secure. And we had lost some severance tax revenue so this helps to offset that loss,” James said.
New businesses include a Valero Truck Stop in Bee Branch and Blue Bird Ranch Winery of Clinton.
Fairfield Bay Mayor Linda Duncan concurred with the county judge, stating that the liquor sales have encouraged residents to spend more money at local retailers, which translates to an increase in tax revenue for her city.
Among the first Fairfield Bay retailers to sell alcohol were Cravens Foods, a grocery store on Highway 16 just outside the main entrance to Fairfield Bay, and Marina Beer & Wine on Highway 330.
David Byard, president of Fairfield Bay Resort & Community, spearheaded a local initiative called Let Van Buren County Vote. He lined up 40 active volunteers, and 15 of them scouted for signatures daily. Byard says he personally went door to door to collect signatures for eight months.
The group succeeded in collecting signatures from more than 38% of the county’s registered voters, the difficult threshold set by lawmakers in 1993 for wet-dry initiatives to appear on the ballot. On Nov. 3, the change was approved by 63% of voters. Sevier County in southwest Arkansas also went wet in November, bringing to 12 the number of counties that have made the switch under the current law.
Wet and Dry Counties in Arkansas
Sales tax and economic development were factors in starting the initiative, Byard said, but his primary motive was to bring more business to the resort community of Fairfield Bay.
“We have 35,000 visitors who come to the [Club Wyndham] Resort yearly,” Byard explained. “When they come here for their week vacation, most of them aren’t aware … that the county was a dry county. So a lot of people would say, ‘Where do you get beer or wine around here?’ And I’d say, ‘You have to go 43 miles away.’ And so that was a very negative thing for the county.”
Byard said he wanted the county to go wet so that more of those visitors would want to return and possibly retire in Fairfield Bay.
Byard says Fairfield Bay resort is in the process of building a 4,000-SF convenience store for beer, wine and gas.
“Since we went wet, economic development has taken off,” said Byard. “From February to now, it’s been a huge difference.”
Sign up for Daily E-news
