GOOD HOPE — After watching Hanceville go through an arduous and sometimes painful wet/dry referendum process, Cullman’s neighbor to the south is about to have its turn. Good Hope will hold a special referendum on alcohol sales on June 1, giving the city two and a half months to prepare not only for the vote, but for the possibility that it may become the first area of Cullman County to legally serve liquor since the prohibition era.

Hanceville voters turned out in force to decide the same issue last week, with the dry vote prevailing by a razor-thin margin.

Good Hope Mayor Corey Harbison, already looking ahead to his city’s referendum, was one of the many spectators outside Hanceville city hall Tuesday watching and waiting to see what the outcome of that city’s vote would be. For Harbison, it was a way of getting an early glimpse of what his town might soon be facing.

“I came neither as a supporter or an opponent of the issue,” said Harbison. “I’m here as mayor of my town; I’m here just to watch. A petition circulated and got enough certified signatures in Good Hope, so we are required to put it on a ballot in our town. I’m here because I thought it would be good to start learning as much as I can about these issues.”

In order to stay ahead of the possibility that Good Hope may go wet, the city council has scheduled a special work session later this month to begin discussing what an ordinance regulating and taxing alcohol sales would look like. Hanceville officials held a similar meeting in February, drawing such intense interest from both Hanceville residents and outsiders that the venue for the meeting had to be changed to accommodate the crowd.

“If it (legalized sales) comes to pass, we need to be ready and have it regulated as much as we can,” Harbison said at Monday’s city council meeting. “We’re going to need all the time we can get on it, and we’ve got to get started.”

City council member Jerry Bartlett recommended that the city learn from other towns’ experiences and mistakes.

“I think it would be a very good idea for us to meet with people from other municipalities who’ve walked through what we’re about to walk through,” he said. “In the past, those who’ve gone before us in other towns have made some mistakes, and we want to learn from those and not repeat them, if we can.”

The council, which meets monthly, only has two more regular meetings before the June 1 referendum. The work session, scheduled for March 29 at 6 p.m., will give the council an opportunity to review alcohol ordinance language ahead of the April regular council meeting.

In other business at the March council meeting, the council:

* Adopted an ordinance outlining an increased sewer fee schedule for the city. For a complete story on the sewer rate increase, see the March 11 edition of The Cullman Times or www.cullmantimes.com on the web.

* Lowered the speed limit on three city roads in response to residents’ concerns and advice from law enforcement.

The speed limit on Industrial Park Road was lowered to 25 mph. On Freeman Road, the speed limit was lowered to 15 mph. The speed limit along Lindsey Road had never been posted, and the council set the limit at 25 mph. The city will furnish speed limit signs on the affected roads in the near future.

* Held preliminary discussion on a traffic congestion problem of growing concern around Good Hope Schools. Harbison asked the council to begin thinking about ways the city could collaborate with the Cullman County Board of Education to develop a long-range solution to weekday morning and afternoon school-related traffic jams.

* Heard a brief presentation from Willy Hendrix, who is running as a Democrat for the Cullman County Commission, Place 2 (west side).

The next regular council meeting will be April 5 at 6 p.m.



* Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 270.