Albany Commission gets update on Sunday alcohol sales ballot

ALBANY – Voters could decide in November whether imbibers in Albany can grab a six pack of beer for the Falcons’ game at the local package store or have a cocktail with Sunday brunch.

Nov. 5 is the next opportunity to put a Sunday sales question on the ballot. A number of cities and counties in the area already have approved Sunday sales in stores.

The first of two draft resolutions would allow for alcohol sales by the drink Sundays from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. It would apply to restaurants that derive the majority of receipts from items other than alcoholic drinks.

The resolution would require that “50% plus $1 be food sales at establishments” and that consumption be on-premises, said Albany City Attorney Nathan Davis, who gave a presentation on the issue at the Tuesday-evening Albany City Commission meeting.

Restaurants that meet the requirements currently can sell mixed drinks, beer and wine after 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, so Davis referred to the resolution as a “brunch bill” that would extend the time frame for serving alcoholic beverages.

The second ballot question would let voters decide whether to allow the package sale of beer, wine and liquor on Sunday.

Davis gave an update on the next date the special-election questions could be put to voters, so commissioners took no action.

State law requires special elections in odd-numbered years be held on one of two dates, one of which already has passed, so November is the next opportunity should the commission approve resolutions placing them on the ballot.

To Albany resident Jerome Fletcher, allowing longer hours for alcohol sales does not seem like a good idea.

“I feel like it’s really not a good thing, personally,” Fletcher, 22, said as he left the Post Office on Wednesday morning.

Fletcher said he knows people who drink to excess and the negative effect it has on their behavior and that drunk-driving is a big killer on the nation’s highways.

“I don’t like being around people who (drink) liquor,” he said. “It causes people to start fighting. I don’t do drugs, and all. I feel like that it is a drug, and the government is making money. We need more positivity in the community.”

Another postal customer, Josh Jones, 28, who recently moved to Cuthbert, said he really had no opinion on the issue.

“I hate to be self-centered, but it really doesn’t affect me,” he said. “I’m kind of neutral.”

In 2011, the Georgia General Assembly passed legislation allowing cities and counties to give voters the chance to decide on Sunday alcohol sales. Similar legislation passed in 2018 allows retailers to begin selling alcoholic beverages on Sunday at 11 a.m.

Albany has not put the question of package sales to voters in the eight years since the package store legislation passed.