By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Monday, local businessman Lewis Windham presented a petition from eight business owners to the Moody City Council saying that they would all like to sell and/or serve alcohol on Sundays. Lewis Windham is the owner of Moody Liquors and has been in business in the St. Clair County town for the past three years. Windham said that the ABC Stores have been asking him when Moody was going to allow beer and alcohol sales on Sundays.
Lewis Windham said that St. Clair County has been a wet county for 50 years and he told the Moody City Council that he estimates that his business would alone would see increased sales of 15% with Sunday sales.
Windham asked Moody Mayor Joe Lee to take this issue to the other St. Clair County Mayors. Mayor Lee told Mr. Windham that the St. Clair County Mayor’s Association meets monthly and that Windham could make his case directly to the mayors at the Mayors’ Association meeting.
Mr. Windham said that St. Clair County is one of the three counties in Alabama that are best poised for growth and that Sunday liquor sales would only help that growth. Windham said that Pell City had begun the process of looking at Sunday liquor sales, but for some reason had tabled the issue.
Moody City Attorney Bill Weathington said that to allow alcohol sales (whether in Moody or the whole of St. Clair County) the state legislature would have to pass a bill allowing the people of Moody (or all of St. Clair County) to vote on the measure, but first Windham would have to talk to one of the members of the St. Clair County delegation and ask them to introduce the measure in the next legislative session. If the legislature passed a bill setting up a Sunday alcohol sales referendum, the people of the jurisdiction affected then could hold a referendum on the matter.
Windham asked if this was something he should talk about with Representative Jim McClendon (R) from Springville. Weathington said that yes, McClendon was one of the people.
St. Clair County is also represented in the Alabama state legislature by Rep. Randy Wood (R), Senator Del Marsh (R) from Anniston, Senator Scott Beason (R) from Gardendale, Rep. Dickie Drake (R) from Leeds, and Rep. Mack Butler (R) from Rainbow City.
Windham said that he understood that this would be a long process and that he was committed to seeing it on the ballot in the 2014 elections.
The council made no motion either in support of or in opposition too Mr. Windham’s proposal in their regularly scheduled Monday Meeting.
