Alcohol On November Referendum

On any given weekend, there are a lot of people coming through the doors of Village Sports Bar and Grill.  They come for the food, but they also come for something else.

"We have the draft beer of course, which is all light beers.  They go really well, but then we try to mix it up with the bottle beers...local kinds everyday stuff," says owner Wendy Bruce.

Bruce says business has been booming since they opened up 8 months ago.

"They just enjoy coming in, listening to the bands, dinner, socializing, it's just a big thing for them," she says.

The sports bar is just outside Lafayette's city limits.  And many of her customers are from Lafayette. A new referendum on the town's November ballot for alcohol by the drink, has many people talking. 

And some of them don't want it.

"Biblically, I just...I know the bible doesn't say, "don't drink", but it does say "do not get drunk on wine, do not get filled with spirits," says Doctor Todd Gaddis.

Gaddis is pastor of the First Baptist Church of Lafayette.  Despite his own personal objections to alcohol, he says having it by the drink doesn't make business sense for the city.

"The amount of revenue that could come in from this just a drop in the bucket compared to the city's budget.  It's not going to help that much, it's going to help very little," he says.

He says only a few restaurants in town want liquor by the drink.  Those restaurants wouldn't talk to us on camera.

"When there's an effort to increase distribution, when only a few will benefit, that's why I say no," he says.

Bruce says she's in support of the referendum.  She says in the end, bars like hers keep money in the area, and keeps residents from having to drive into Chattanooga.

"People are going to vote it, if they want it, it's gonna come," she says.