Petition started to bring wet/dry vote to Madison Co.

MADISON COUNTY, Ky. (WKYT) - Several Madison County business owners are pushing to make the county wet.

A petition they’ve created to get a wet-dry vote on the November ballot has already gained a lot of momentum, but their time is running out.

Wesley Browne is the co-owner of Apollo Pizza. He and other business owners in the area have been working to make Madison County wet.

Right now, the City of Richmond is considered wet, but the City of Berea is only considered moist.

Browne says changes to the alcohol sales laws could bring a lot of business and tourism to the entire county.

“Alcohol is not just alcohol,” said Browne. “It’s all of the development that goes with it. Development follows wet places. Tourists don’t stay in Madison County because it’s not wet. So they either don’t come here. Or when they get here, they don’t make their stays as long.”

10,000 registered Madison County voters are being asked to sign a petition that would make the entire county wet. Something it hasn’t been since 1919.

“While the city of Richmond has been wet famously for a long time, the rest of the county has never gone with it,” said Browne. “The problem with that is the economic development is all in Richmond, or primarily in Richmond. Berea had Kroger literally pull out of their plans to come to Berea when they found out it wasn’t wet.”

Browne says they have to submit the petition with the needed number of signatures to the Madison County Clerk’s Office by February 7.

Browne says they have around 7,000 signatures right now.

You can virtually sign the petition at: alcoholvote.com.

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