As promised, Bethel City Council member Mitchell Forbes submitted an application for a local option proposition to open and operate a city liquor store. He turned in the petition paperwork with the required 10 signatures on Monday.
“I had to turn away people who wanted to sign my application, which is a good thing. It’s a great problem,” Forbes said.
The application needs 248 signatures from registered voters for the proposition to make it onto the October municipal ballot.
“It would ask the voters of Bethel if they would like to enter the Alaska Statues of Local Option that would allow for a city-owned liquor store and restaurant or eating place license," Forbes said. "With the idea that the city could run a package store, but we would be able to contract out to local businesses the restaurant license.”
If the voters answer “yes,” then they’ll be asked whether they want to opt out of applying a felony to people convicted of supplying alcohol to those under age 21. The charge is currently a misdemeanor in Bethel and in all places without local option.
Bethel voted to leave local option in 2009 and enter unrestricted status. The change allowed people to import unlimited amounts of alcohol into Bethel, but did not legalize sales within the city. Forbes says that that was a different time. He, for one, was 14 years old and unable to vote. And a city-run liquor store wasn’t on the table.
“So now that we’ve seen legal sales," Forbes said, "I think it’s a great time for the voters of Bethel to look back and think, ‘Is this what we want out of our community? Is this what we’re looking for?'"
In the nearly two years since a liquor store opened in Bethel, calls for emergency services and reports of sexual assault have increased. Use of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation’s Sobriety Center has gone up, and villages have reported more crime.
Opponents of Forbes’ plan argue that a city-run liquor store blocks entrepreneurship in a town heavily funded by government, but Forbes counters that argument.
“I think alcohol is such a complicated issue that it’s one instance where a little bit more restriction on the sale of alcohol, I don’t think, would be a bad thing for Bethel or for our nearby communities,” he said.
The City Clerk has two weeks to certify the petition application. If passed, then Forbes will have 90 days to collect signatures.
