Liquor

agenda for last night's meeting (after press

time).

Council

members discussed whether to put a question on

the ballot for the city's Nov. 2 election, asking

voters to approve or disapprove sales of liquor

For

details of the discussion and to learn what the

council members decided, see The Citizen's web

site at www.thecitizennews.com.

Lane

Brown, a local Realtor, has been circulating a

petition to force the question onto the ballot,

but time has run out, and Brown says he is about

100 signatures short of the required number.

State

law requires that alcohol questions be placed on

the ballot if 35 percent of the registered voters

sign a petition. Brown said he has about 1,650

signatures and may be able to get the rest within

a week or two.

"I

will continue going on. The petitions are coming

in a little slower," said Brown. "I

just don't know if we've got enough time."

City

clerk Judy Stephens answered that question.

"We would need 60 days to verify the

signatures and get it on the ballot," she

said. "Sept. 3 would be the last day."

City

Council can, by majority vote, put the question

on the ballot without a petition, and that's what

Brown is asking the group to do.

If

council refuses, Brown said he will keep working

to force the issue through petition, but that

will require a special election at additional

expense to the city taxpayers.

"I'm

still having trouble with this," said

Councilman Kenneth Steele during a work session

last week. "We had an election five years

ago and it was turned down. We have a petition

for referendum and Lane has not gotten sufficient

signatures."

Brown

pointed out that hundreds of new residents have

moved to Fayetteville since the last vote on the

liquor question. And the referendum failed by

only a handful of votes the last time, he said.

During

the work session, council discussed the

possibility of setting up a liquor pouring zone

in its historic Main Street District to bolster

revitalization efforts there, but there was

little sentiment for placing the issue on the

ballot without a petition.

Councilman

Glenn Brewer pointed out, though, that Mayor Mike

Wheat and Councilman Larry Dell were absent from

the work session, and suggested keeping the item

on the agenda for Tuesday's business meeting so

the full council would have a chance to discuss

it.

The

meeting is normally conducted on first Mondays,

but was moved to Tuesday this week because of the

Labor Day holiday.