Opinion Outlook The
Our
Opinion
It’s time for a change on Sunday sales
T
allapoosa County commissioners and the city councils in Alexander City, Dadeville and New Site have all agreed to put Sunday alcohol sales on the ballot. Since Camp Hill already allows Sunday alcohol sales, if the new proposals pass, it would mean that alcohol could be sold on Sundays throughout the county. We think this is a very good idea. And the reason is simple: Our community is becoming a tourist destination with Lake Martin at its heart. That means we are competing with other tourist destinations, like the Gulf Coast, where Sunday alcohol sales is allowed. Why is this a big deal? Because most restaurants make a large portion of their profit selling alcoholic beverages. The mark-up on beer can exceed 500 percent. In other words, a restaurant will buy a serving of beer for 65 cents and sell it for $4. By the way, similar profits are made in tea, soft drinks and coffee. Forbidding restaurants from selling their highest-profit items during half the weekend in a tourist area, when most of their potential customers are here, is a deal-breaker for many national restaurant chains. They simply will not consider opening here. So allowing alcohol to be sold all weekend – when most people are visiting our area – is not only good business because it brings in additional tax revenue and sales, it is also a major recruiting tool for bringing new restaurants and hospitality businesses to the Lake Martin area. And that will in turn bring more tourists and more jobs here. Outdated blue laws do not prevent people from drinking on Sunday – anybody who has been to Chimney Rock on Sunday knows that is an absolute fact. Instead, the blue laws are harming our local economy and decreasing our potential as a tourist destination. It is time to change and encourage new growth in our market.
MITCH SNEED EDITOR (256) 234-4281 X213 editor@alexcityoutlook.com
Weekend Edition, March 19-20, 2016
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It’s time for state to get out of marriage business
A
labama may soon be out of the marriage license business. This week Alabama senators approved a bill 23-3 that would require couples to fill out a state-issued form recording their marriage instead of a state-issued marriage license. Which brings to mind the question, why is the state in the business of issuing marriage licenses in the first place? I’m quite sure that for most of human history, whoever was in charge didn’t give a hoot about who married who, as long as it didn’t affect the guys in charge. The church cared. Parents cared. Future husbands and wives certainly cared. Government? Not so much. It’s only in our modern society, when taxers, estate executors, divorce lawyers, insurance providers, etc., started making laws about marriages and treating the married differently than the unmarried that the statesanctioned marriage license became standard. I may be showing my slightly Libertarian leanings here, but I really don’t think the government has a right to license people to marry each other in the first place. The word “license” means
KENNETH BOONE Publisher
“to give permission.” The only person I asked for permission to marry Mary Lyman was her father, Dr. T. Riley Lumpkin. He gave me an enthusiastic “Yes”… but didn’t bother to issue me a license. The bill abolishing the requirement for Alabama to issue marriage licenses now goes to the House for a vote. If it passes there, it has to get Gov. Bentley’s permission before it becomes Alabama’s law. I think we all know that this change is designed to keep the most traditional of Alabama probate judges from being forced by federal law to give permission for gays and lesbians to get married. The State of Alabama is basically saying, “Y’all do what you want to and tell us after you did it.” In my mind, marriage is a holy sacrament. It’s a deeply meaningful public contract between two people made in the presence of God and witnesses, where both parties
pledge to love each other, comfort each other, honor and keep each other, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, as long as they both shall live. I’m not really clear on how the guys in the probate office are involved in any of that. I do see a need for some form of marriage contract if non-religious folks want to tie the knot. And I certainly agree that the government has the right to require official notification on who is married and who is not so our legal system can function. It also has every right to receive official notification when a marriage fails, or when one spouse dies, or a custody battle begins, or any number of situations where the legality of a marriage comes into question. But that’s just a legal notification process anyway. A government form will work just as well as a “license” as long as it’s the law of the land. What do you think? Should you be required to get permission from the state before you get married? We’d love to hear your opinion in a letter to the editor.
Bobby Tapley represents District 1. His phone number is 256-3299671. His address is 1821 LaVista Road, Alexander City, AL 35010. Chairman of the Public Safety committee. Sherry Ellison-Simpson represents District 2. Her phone number is 256-329-0516. Her address is 2879 Old Dark Road, Alexander City, AL 35010. Chairman of the Parks and Recreation committee. Bob Howard represents District 3. His phone number is 256-2342225. His address is 241 8th Street West, Alexander City, AL 35010. Chairman of the Buildings and Property committee. Billy Ray Wall represents District 4. His phone number is 256-329-8060. His address is 101 Scott Road, Alexander City, AL 35010. Chairman of the Public Works committee. James Spann represents District 5. His phone number is 256-329-9758. His address is 314 Auburn Drive, Alexander City, AL 35010. Chairman of Finance committee. Tony Goss represents District 6. His phone number is 256-749-3355. His address is 647 Shady Point, Alexander City, AL 35010. Chairman of Utilities committee.
Sherry Ellison Simpson
Bob Howard
Billy Ray Wall
James Spann
Tony Goss
Scripture “A person without self-control is like a city with brokendown walls.” – Proverbs 25:28
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Daily Poll Friday’s question: Do you feel safe in Alexander City?
Yes – 43
Weekend question: Do you think the state should get out of the marriage business? To participate in this daily poll, log on each day to www.alexcityoutlook.com and vote. Find out the vote totals in the next edition of The Outlook and see if your vote swayed the results.
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Some things that floated around the desk
Bobby Tapley
Today’s
No – 30
Officials
Charles Shaw
Quote
“We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.” – Nelson Mandela
Boone is publisher of The Outlook.
Know Your Charles Shaw is mayor of Alexander City. His phone number at city hall is 256-329-6730 and his home number is 256-234-7395 His address at city hall is 4 Court Square; Alexander City, AL, 35010. His home address is 98 Heritage Drive Alexander City, AL, 35010.
Today’s
I
t’s time again to clean out the notebook and get some of the things I haven’t gotten to in the newspaper. So in no particular order, here are the things that have been floating around in my head for far too long. SUNSHINE WEEK FODDER: This as been Sunshine Week, a time when we in the media work to make sure that government is as open as it should be. Let me give you an example of how open records can work for you. It takes an act of Congress to wake me up normally, but for three straight weeks on Tuesday morning I have been rousted from the best sleep I had gotten in weeks by the sound of the trash truck picking up garbage along my street. I understand that everyone has a job to do and normally I admire people who get up and get busy to get the job done. But to be making the kind of racket that these guys do before 5 a.m. is uncalled for. After the first time I called city hall and was told they would look into it. The second time I called again and consulted the police about disturbing the peace, but I had to find out if that was something that the city allowed anyway. So I did an open records request for the contract that the city has with Advance Waste, the contractor that the city uses. Harriett Scott was great and was able to fill the request in short order. Right there in black and white on Page 5 of the con-
MITCH SNEED Editor
tract that was signed by then Mayor Don McClellan was the answer. “Collections shall be made in residential areas no earlier than 7 a.m. with no service on Sunday, except in time of emergency or to maintain schedules due to Holidays. Confirmation of a state of emergency must be made by the City.” Armed with that, I asked the city to let the folks know that the waste company needed to follow the contract. But the very next Tuesday morning at 4:39 a.m., Truck 34 was back on my street. As I stormed out of my house barefooted, in my boxers and wifebeater T-shirt, I armed myself with the contract. “Fellas, I need to get your truck number and names,” I said, waving the contract in hand. “It says right here that you can’t be on the streets until after 7 a.m. and it’s now 4:42. You guys need to go park and stop this. People are trying to sleep. I have talked with the police and they say that this is disturbing the peace.” Now not that it was the brightest idea to have that conversation in the middle of the street in my boxers, it needed to be said and it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of open records. Now if they come the same time next week, you may be
able to use open records to see my name in the arrest reports. Just saying… THE DEATH OF RESPECT: I was at lunch at Who’s on Friday when a reader sat down at my booth and said he had something for me. “You need to do a story in your paper about respect,” he said. “I was at the shopping center across from Radney Funeral Home the other day when the procession was leaving the parking lot. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw a truck pulling a trailer cut out through that procession because he didn’t want to wait. It just floored me. Are we that busy that we can’t have a little respect?” He was absolutely right. We all need to remember what our mother’s and Sunday school should have taught us. Take time to open the door for someone, say ‘thank you,’ and ‘please’ and smile at people you meet. Remember to use sir or ma’am when addressing an elder. You never know what being nice and respectful can do for someone else. MY OWN THANK YOU: I want to thank everyone for the kind words after my column last week. I never intended it to be something that I received praise for, but to hear that some people may have read about the mess I made of my life and used that as an inspiration for themselves or others is very humbling. Thank you all for reading. Mitch Sneed is the editor of The Outlook.
How to
Subscribe The subscription rate is $136.00 per year in Tallapoosa and Coosa counties and $177.99 outside the area. Periodicals paid at Alexander City, AL. Newspapers are available at 100 news racks in our area at 50 cents for The Outlook and 50 cents for The Record. Call David at (256) 234-4281, Ext. 204 or e-mail david.kendrick@alexcityoutlook.com to subscribe.
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We’d like to share your thoughts and opinions with the greater Lake Martin community. It’s free and it only takes a few moments of your time. We have two ways to get your opinion in print: letters to the editor and guest columns. The main difference is length. Letters to the editor are up to 250 words, while guest columns can be up to 500 words. Letters and columns may be sent to P.O. Box 999, Alexander City, AL 35011, faxed to (256) 234-6550 or e-mailed to editor@alexcityoutlook.com. Please include your name, address and phone number. Send us your thoughts today!
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