Alcohol sales on Sparta ballot

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Feb 20, 2005 | by Grooms, Autumn

SPARTA, Wis. - Beer and liquor will be on the April 5 city ballot, as voters will be asked to decide whether either or both should be available in local grocery and convenience stores.

It will be the third public vote in two decades on allowing Sparta stores to sell liquor or beer.

The two previous votes showed strong opposition. In 1996, a retail liquor referendum was turned down, 1,552 to 366, along with a similar question on beer sales, 1,484 to 424. In 1985, the question failed by an almost 2-to-1 margin.

The latest attempt advanced to the April 5 vote after two petitions containing enough signatures were delivered to city hall, said Janice Foss, city clerk.

Each petition - circulated at the Wal-Mart Supercenter, Piggly Wiggly and the Amish Cheese House - needed 380 signatures, or 15 percent of the people who voted in the 2002 gubernatorial election. The liquor petition had 538 signatures, the beer petition 563, Foss said.

The Amish Cheese House gets a lot of business from nearby hotels, Interstate 90 traffic and residents of communities such as Leon and Melvina as they head home from work, said owner Ray Weibel.

But if they ask for beer or liquor products, "We have to send them down the road," he said.

He hopes voters say yes this time. "It would definitely increase my traffic and definitely help my business, just because I get so many requests for it," Weibel said.

It is too bad only city residents can vote on the measure, Weibel added, as plenty of people in outlying areas would appreciate being able to purchase those products at his store.

"There are only two options (now) - either go to a bar or to a liquor store (outside the city)," Weibel said. "The nearest liquor store from me is three miles."

But Eddie Habhegger isn't a referendum supporter. The owner of Fast Eddie's Beverage, on Hwy. 21 in the town of Sparta said his business was in the city until 1963, when a referendum forced him and another liquor store to leave Sparta.

A grocery store had sought to sell beer and liquor, so the issue went to referendum. Habhegger pushed for its defeat, only to learn when he sought to renew his retail sales license that the new referendum excluded his store as well.

"We lost our business and everything," he said. "We had to start all over again."

Habhegger was able to buy some land on Hwy. 21, and the town of Sparta granted him a license. The family-run business has been there ever since.

The city has plenty of bars and taverns that sell beer and liquor for off-premises consumption, Habhegger said.

"We will continue to maintain very low prices here, and hope the people will vote the same way we will - no. We're hopin' and prayin' that we win," he said.