The

liquor question may be on Fayetteville's Nov. 2

election ballot after all.

"We're

going to see if we can push it through,"

said local Realtor Lane Brown, who has been

working for almost five years to complete a

petition drive to force a referendum on liquor by

the drink.

This

week, Brown said he expects to have the petition

completed by the end of the week or early next

week, and will ask the U.S. Justice Department to

expedite its approval of the change in the

ballot.

"I

spoke to them and they said it is possible to ask

for consideration to expedite," Brown said

Tuesday.

Mayor

Mike Wheat took liquor off the agenda before

Fayetteville's City Council meeting last week,

saying the time is not right to discuss the

matter. Brown had asked the council to consider

putting the issue on the ballot, saying his

petition was within 90 signatures of the 35

percent of registered voters required to force

the question.

Wheat

said he didn't want the council to take a vote on

putting the matter on the ballot without a

petition unless the vote was likely to be

one-sided. "I feel that it ought to be

either unanimous or 4-1 before we put [liquor] on

the ballot without a petition from the

voters," Wheat said.

He

had talked to council members before the meeting,

he added, and "it looked like it was just

going to be 3-2.

"To

take a 3-2 vote on a referendum I didn't think

was a very good signal to send to the

community," he added.

Brown

asked council to consider notifying the U.S.

Justice Department that the question will be on

the ballot to give him extra time to get the

final signatures.

"I've

got 1,650 signatures," said Lane. "That

should give an indication that they do want it on

the ballot."

"We'll

think about that," said Wheat.

Carl

Davis, representing the Lakemont Homeowners

Association, had attended the council meeting to

comment on a zoning matter, but during the liquor

discussion stood up and told Lane his

neighborhood could supply the 90 additional

signatures needed to put liquor on the ballot.

Brown

said Tuesday he met with some Lakemont

homeowners, and eight volunteers are now

canvassing the neighborhood in hopes of getting

about 150 more signatures from the neighborhood

of more than 300 homes. "I want to get some

extras in case some are thrown out," he

said.

If

he can't get the issue on the ballot for this

November, Brown said he will wait for the

presidential primary next March. "I don't

want to have a special election on this," he

said. "I can't trust it to the low turnout

that you'd have with just one issue on the

ballot."

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