Tiny Nevada town gets county OK to lift ban on alcohol sales

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Alcohol gross sales will quickly be allowed in a tiny Nevada city the place spiritual roots led to a decades-long ban on shopping for beer, wine and liquor.

Bars nonetheless received’t be allowed, however shops will be capable of promote alcohol in Alamo after the Lincoln County Fee on Tuesday unanimously endorsed a neighborhood board vote taken a number of months in the past to repeal a prohibition adopted in 1985, the Las Vegas Overview-Journal reported.

Lots of the roughly 1,100 individuals who stay within the unincorporated jurisdiction a few 90-minute drive north of Las Vegas are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, City Board Chairman Vern Holaday informed the Overview-Journal forward of the county fee vote.

The religion preaches abstinence from alcohol.

Alamo’s repeal may change into efficient in about 30 days, Lincoln County District Legal professional Dylan Frehner stated.

That can depart Panaca as the one remaining city in Nevada to ban alcohol gross sales, the Overview-Journal reported. That city of 1,000 folks is the Lincoln County seat and is a greater than two-hour drive north of Las Vegas.

A handful of communities in neighboring Utah, the place The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint is predicated, additionally prohibit alcohol gross sales. Voters in Blanding, a rural city of about 3,300 residents that pulls guests to nationwide parks together with the Grand Canyon rejected a 2017 poll measure that may have allowed beer and wine gross sales for the primary time in additional than 80 years. In Hyde Park, inhabitants 4,000, voters in 2013 lifted a ban on alcohol gross sales.

Alamo leaders determined final 12 months they need the native grocery store and gasoline station to have the ability to compete with rival companies exterior of city that promote alcohol, Holaday informed the county commissioners.

“It’s not like there’s going to be a bar in each nook on the town” he stated. County legislation bans alcohol gross sales inside 1,500 toes (457 meters) of a church, faculty or different alcohol enterprise.

A Las Vegas-based comfort retailer chain has proposed including a motel, gasoline station and a market promoting liquor at a former truck cease it acquired simply exterior Alamo, Holaday informed the Overview-Journal. The chain already sells alcohol at a retailer 7 miles (11 kilometers) away in Ash Springs.

Holaday didn’t instantly reply to a message left by The Related Press at his enterprise, the 16-room Alamo Inn.

Varlin Higbee, a county commissioner who owns a ranch is in Alamo, famous in an electronic mail that liquor licensees nonetheless should meet city and county necessities.

“An over-the-counter bar isn’t going to occur in Alamo, zoning legal guidelines wont enable it,” Higbee informed the AP on Wednesday.