Columbus Council has kicked the proverbial (beer?) can a little farther down the road and the people’s vote on it a few more months into the future.
Council voted Tuesday morning to amend the first reading of a resolution that would have put the question of Sunday retail sales of alcoholic beverages before the voting public in the July 31 primary. Instead, that first reading called for the issue to be on the ballot in the November general election. Assuming, of course, that council approves the resolution a week from next Tuesday.
The ostensible rationale for the delay is that the general election will bring out more voters, which is no doubt true. Whether that’s why getting the matter before the public has been such an excruciatingly tentative process, almost a year after the state approved it, is another matter.
There’s a credible constitutional argument about whose permission should be needed anyway. A ban on Sunday alcohol sales, like any other kind of “blue law,” is obviously a religious prohibition imposed on the public at large, and everybody knows it. That such laws ignore the spirit, and likely the letter, of the establishment clause is something their defenders pretend not to notice.
Be that as it may, a matter that has overwhelming statewide support will finally get to Columbus voters in the fall. We think.
HCC grants welcome
The Historic Chattahoochee Commission announced last week that it has awarded matching grants to two area organizations. This funding is welcome news to all of us who value historic preservation and education.
Columbus State University’s Carson McCullers Center has been awarded $1,000 for special education programs to commemorate the 95th birthday of the renowned Columbus author.
Across the river, the Lee County Historical Society has received a $1,500 grant for the Trade Center Museum at Pioneer Park in Loachapoka. The Lee County grant will help to fund interpretive displays and audio recordings for museum exhibits.
These awards are part of the commission’s Education and Interpretation grant program funded by the Aflac Foundation of Columbus, whose generosity should be acknowledged.
The Historic Chattahoochee Commission, established in 1970, promotes historic preservation and history tourism along the Chattahoochee Trace, an 18-county area in the Chattahoochee corridor of Alabama and Georgia. It receives funding from both states, and has offices in Eufaula, Ala., and LaGrange, Ga. In the last 25 years the commission has disbursed more than $150,000 in matching funds to historic, environmental, tourism and educational organizations in the Chattahoochee Trace.
