CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — When driving through Clarksville, Councilman DeJuan Little wishes he saw more liquor stores, given the city's size.
"More competition sometimes is good," said Little, who represents Ward 3. "Allow more convenience for people to use it responsibly."
Councilwoman Wanda Smith drives around town and sees far too many.
"Do we really need more liquor stores, really?" asked Smith, who represents Ward 6."We need to use common sense to make the right decision for the good of this city."
So Smith introduced an ordinance that would cap the number of liquor stores at 16. Currently, only 14 license holders have operational stores. Two new permit holders were just given permission.
"Too many deaths are happening, too many underage drinkings are happening," said Smith.
But Councilman Little supports the ordinance the way it's currently written.
"You can go to Chuck E Cheese, they sell beer. It’s everywhere. So if we really want to get ahead of the problem and try to find a solution, it’s not necessarily a licensing thing," said Little.
The current ordinance allows for two names to literally be drawn out of a hat, every other year. But the city can only continue to expand liquor stores like that until they reach a rate of one store for every 6,000 people. "If our population remains stagnant right now, it would allow for about 30 liquor stores," said Little.
There's also a group of Clarksville councilmembers that want there to be no limits on the number of licenses and let the free market decide.
"Maybe we can find a happy medium somewhere," said Little.
He thinks removing all guardrails could be reckless for the city.
"I don’t want to see something to where, we see cash advance, gas station, liquor store. Cash advance, gas station, liquor store," said Little.
So what will we see in the future when driving through Clarksville?
Clarksville City Council voted to amend Smith's resolution and allow no limits on the number of liquor stores. But then the overall ordinance was delayed until the October regular council meeting.
I asked Clarksville's Mayor, Joe Pitts, if he wanted to weigh into this story. His spokesperson replied that the Mayor wasn't willing to speak on the idea just yet, saying "there are too many outstanding issues to consider."
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Chris.Davis@NewsChannel5.com.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
