While it didn't quite rage on as long as Sweetwater's debate over alcohol sales, the idea of selling beer on Sunday in Tellico Plains did dominate the mayor and aldermen's November meeting.
When the liquor by the drink referendum passed in Sweetwater in June, it automatically made Sunday beer sales in the county legal. It also gave the three municipalities the right, if they so wished, to sell beer on Sundays.

With Sunday beer sales legal in the county, that meant there were a couple of businesses just outside the Tellico Plains town limits that could sell beer on Sundays.
Scott Shankle, who runs the chain of Valley Marts, including the BP station on Highway 68 in Tellico Plains, asked for the right to sell beer on Sundays after his revenue began to decline on Sundays.
The request was brought up Thursday night and Mayor Roger Powers said he had no problem with the idea, but he believed the sells shouldn't start until 1 p.m. when most church services are over.

"We're also a town that depends on sales tax," Powers said. "Beer sales are a pretty good source of these taxes. Now it's being sold just outside of town on Sundays and we're losing out on the revenue."

Shankle said the town was losing more than just the beer sales tax. "You're losing the tax from everything people aren't buying in town," he told the board. "People tend to buy more than one thing when they're in the store and they don't want to make two stops, so they'll go to the store that has everything they want."

The sales tax argument didn't sway some board members, including Jamie Sisson who presented petitions he had received from two different churches in town opposed to the Sunday sales.
"Personally, I'm opposed to it because it's Sunday," Sisson said. "They have six other days to sell beer. Let Sunday be Sunday."

Aldermen Robert Hamilton and Kim Bolix said they had both received phone calls opposing Sunday sales. Powers and Aldermen Harkey Yates and Larry Harris said they hadn't received any calls about the idea, neither for nor against.
Ross Tarver of Tarver Distributing told the board Tellico had seen steady increases in sales tax collected on beer until the other areas started offering Sunday sales.
"You've been going down since then," he said. "Sunday sales, annually, could bring in an extra $19,000 in revenue for the town."

Shankle said the difference in his Sweetwater stores had been huge since Sunday sales were enacted.
Yates, after commenting that a lot of the signatures on the church petitions didn't actually live in Tellico Plains, said this might be better put to a vote by the people, but with the next Tellico Plains election nearly two years away, the idea didn't gain any traction.
Harris commented, "It's a legal activity and the businesses outside of town do it and hurt our sales. I think we should do it, but limit the hours of sales from 1-6 p.m."

Yates seconded that motion and he and Harris voted yes, along with Town Recorder David Bookout. Bolix, Sisson and Hamilton voted no, leaving the mayor with the tie breaking vote.
"I'm voting for it because of the tax revenue," Powers said. "We need as much money coming in to the town as possible."

The board also passed the town's 2009-10 budget on a second reading unanimously, though Sisson did say in the future he would like to have input on the budget, maybe even hold a couple of workshops instead of just having it handed to him at the last minute and being told to vote on it.
Powers said that wouldn't be a problem, that anyone was welcome to come by City Hall and see the budget beforehand and workshops could easily be scheduled.

michael.thomason@advocateanddemocrat.com | 442-4575