On Election Day, registered voters in the city limits of Canyon will have the chance to vote on two items involving alcohol sales in Canyon. One is for the legal sale of mixed beverages in restaurants by food and beverage certificate holders only, and the second is for the legal sale of beer and wine for off-premise consumption only.
Randy Criswell, city manager of Canyon, said the local option election has been talked about before, but it has never been serious enough to pursue. This recently changed, however, when local development business owners approached the city with interest in pursuing it.
“They wanted to know what it would take to get a local option on the ballot,” Criswell said. “We had to educate ourselves. We had a meeting with a TABC officer, the city secretary and the election administrator.”
The city was contacted by Election Strategies with interest in bringing a local option election. A committee was created for the pursuit of the local option, and an agreement was made to send in a petition team. Several steps were taken in order to get it on the ballot.
First, a formal request was submitted to the city secretary with 10 signatures from registered voters in the city limits for both options. After that, petitions were created for each option. Criswell said each petition had to have a minimum of 1,004 signatures.
“The city secretary validated those signatures,” Criswell said. “She counted more than 1,100 signatures on both.”
Once the signatures were validated, the city commission placed the items on the next regular Election Day ballot.
The Canyon News reported that the Bible Believers Baptist Church, located outside city limits, purchased ads in The Canyon News to draw attention to their website. The website lists names of those who signed the petitions. One line on their advertisement read, “Hypocrites for booze,” targeting church members in the city limits who signed these particular petitions.
Jeremy King, assistant store director of United Supermarkets in Canyon, said the impact of alcohol sales in their stores has always been positive, and if  the options pass, they will carry it.
“It’s an item the community wants,” King said. “We’re here to serve everybody’s needs. We will get it in our store if it passes. The demand is high enough.”
If passed, the local options could impact Canyon.
“One thing I am confident I can say will be an impact is there will be added tax dollars collected,” Criswell said.
He said some residents say crime will increase, but there are some studies that say otherwise. There is speculation about the financial impact.
“We’ll just have to wait and see,” he said.