Sense....And Nonsense

There are some things that make sense. And then there’s nonsense. Tuesday’s Fairfield City Council meeting provided more of the latter than the former….

The same mayor who brought seven new liquor ordinances (which passed unanimously) last month, cast the deciding vote thwarting the expansion of package liquor licenses and Sunday alcohol sales. Last month he presented ordinances allowing alcohol at banquets, non-for-profits and on sidewalks.

This week, Mayor Brent Maguire told the council he was a youth minister and could not vote for an expansion of package liquor licenses. No such statement last month.  Frankly, I don’t understand the decision by the mayor and Aldermen Jim Griffith, Ralph Barbre, Eugene McGill and Jerry Lisenbee. This isn’t a wet/dry issue. Fairfield has been wet for decades…and last month they made it much wetter. All they did this week was deny a free and open market for consumers.

This is not only a victory for the two current---and only---local package license holders…..it also is being celebrated in Cisne and Flora where they sell plenty of booze to people from Fairfield looking for a bargain.

Every one of these aldermen voted to expand drinking by adding booze at hotels, festivals and banquet halls---without reservation---only a meeting ago….

….but four of them changed their idea of expansion by voting no on Tuesday to package liquor licenses and Sunday sales.  I’d like for them to explain the difference.

This isn’t an earth-shattering turn-of-events. It’s just curious.

…and for the life of me, I can’t make sense of it.