Business

County ABC board votes to disband

By Bill Moss, Published: August 21, 2013

Members of Henderson County's ABC Board voted today to disband, saying that a year of research, discussion and study had clearly showed there was no need for a new store and no appetite among three city boards for merging.

"We're supposed to oversee an ABC store," said member George Erwin. "We don't have an ABC store. I recommend that we disband."
Board members unanimously agreed, so at 2:14 p.m. they voted to go out of business and then voted to adjourn.
Chairman Beau Waddell said he would take the recommendation to the county commissioners, which appointed the five-member board in July 2012 and charged it with ascertaining whether the county should build a new store and if so where. The commissioners acted after county voters approved liquor sales countywide in a May 2012 referendum.
"From Day 1 my thoughts were that if we find out the needs are being met by the other ABC cities, we weren't going to be building an ABC store," Erwin said.
In June the board received a report from Asheville consultants Martin-McGill that said consumer needs were amply met by the five ABC stores operated by the Hendersonville, Laurel Park and Fletcher ABC boards plus one in Pisgah Forest just opened by the Brevard ABC board.
Board members said it appeared that Brevard had reacted quickly to the Henderson County vote.
"They opened it quickly because it was a lease within days of getting approval," Waddell said. "I was surprised how that really affected our (marketing) report but it does affect it."
Erwin added: "After the referendum passed overwhelmingly in Henderson County (Brevard said) we better put one in Pisgah Forest because they might put one in Etowah."

Board members said their study of the liquor market and how it's covered convinced them that a merger of one or more of the current ABC systems made sense but the ABC boards were unreceptive to the idea and under state law the county could not force a consolidation.