Liquor Sales In Rhea County?

It's one of the few areas left in the Tennessee Valley where it's still illegal to buy a glass of liquor.  But, there's now a push to change the liquor laws in Rhea County. 

Teresa Fuller has lived in Rhea County for 20 years.  She says, "Everybody's got it but here, and they ain't never had it here."

The streets of Rhea County offer small shops, places to sit and play checkers, and drinks like speciality coffees, even fruit smoothies.  But if you're looking for a liquor drink, you won't find it.

That's why Roger Jaquette is trying to bring liquor by the drink to restaurants in Spring City and Dayton, also bringing franchises, jobs, and money.  "The people of Rhea County are going to gain from it and the cities, it's going to bring the money in and keep the money in, that thousands are going out every month."

Now this push comes in Dayton, a city that's shared by Bryan College, a Christian University founded by William Jennings Bryan, one of many in the area very much against the sale of alcohol.

Sonya Franklin says, "I'm very much against it as a Christian I don't think it's something that we need to encourage in our county, we have a large faith based community and I would like to see everyone stand up against it."

Franklin says the bad that liquor sales would bring here far outweighs the good that it might due to the economy.  "I think we'll see greater rates of STDs, teenage pregnancies, unplanned pregnancies, drunk drivers, accidents, deaths, we already have enough of that."

It's a debate that divides even small towns like this one.

Bill Fuller says, "I don't think it will add to the crime rate, people who will drink, will drink, people who drink bad, will drive bad, with or without a drink."

Franklin adds, "I'm very much against it. I think it will do nothing but bring more harm into this county."

Jaquette says he just wants voters to decide by putting liquor by the drink on the ballot in August of 2010.  He has already presented the idea to Spring City and plans to talk with the Dayton City Council on June first.

If neither approve it for the ballot, Jaquette will try to get enough signatures for a referendum.