GOOD HOPE — A lot has changed in the two years since residents of Good Hope voted to keep their city dry.

Cullman went wet. Then Hanceville. If, on Tuesday, Good Hope voters approve round two in the ongoing effort to topple long-standing local restrictions on alcohol, the city will be the last eligible municipality in Cullman County to make the switch.

Some business owners in Good Hope believe that, now, the moral stakes for those who once opposed legalized sales are very low. With wet cities now bookending Good Hope to the north and south, they argue access to liquor has become a non-issue.

“Access doesn’t matter anymore,” said Larry Allred, longtime owner of Jack’s Western Wear on Ala. Highway 69. “When you can go five minutes up the road to Cullman, and get anything you want, it’s hard to say that we’re fighting to keep alcohol out of our city — it’s already here. It’s just a matter of who gets the money, and where the development is going to go.”

Where the stakes are highest, for business owners like Allred, is in the survival of Good Hope’s retail scene. For some who own businesses along the busy Ala. Highway 69 corridor, Good Hope holds a lot of assets — many that compare favorably to those of Cullman — and those assets are just waiting to be squandered if voters choose to keep alcohol sales out of the city.

“To me, it’s a matter of life and death for Good Hope,” Allred says flatly. “We’ve got so much potential — nobody’s located on an [Interstate] interchange with more potential for good, quality growth than we are here in Good Hope. [Ala. Highway] 157 is built out. Cullman can’t grow that exit that much more.

“But here we are, with Highway 69 and another entire interchange coming on [County Road] 222. And I think the thing we have to ask is, ‘Do we want Good Hope to keep on being a city with a bunch of gas stations? Or do we want some different types of growth; restaurants, some shopping — just a variety of things to capitalize on our terrific location between Birmingham and Huntsville; our position near Smith Lake; our gateway access for traffic coming into the industry and recreation areas in south Cullman?’”

One Good Hope native hoping for a ‘yes’ vote is Clarence Harris, who owns 15 acres of property just north of Highway 69. The land abuts I-65, and connects with a separately-owned parcel of similar size that, taken together, could site a shopping center Harris envisions as a scaled-down version of the Target/Best Buy center off I-65 at Fultondale.

Harris said he’s excited about developing his land for retail, and is serious about it — if Good Hope goes wet. But he’s seen developers, cities and merchants dangle the prospect of lavish retail development before voters ahead of wet/dry referenda in days past, and he’s not really interested in stating the case for retail development in a way that patronizes anyone.

“The way I look at wet/dry is this: I went to school at Good Hope, and I’ve got a lot of friends who vote both ways. If Good Hope goes wet, the city can keep the revenue off the sale of alcohol and not ship it all up to Cullman. It’s really an issue that explains itself. At the end of the day, people just have to vote their conscience. But there’s no question that Good Hope has a strong incentive to attract chains, restaurants, recognizable names from out of town — if there’s alcohol here.”

That line of thinking suggests that pro-wet equals pro-growth for retailers, commercial property owners and out-of town investors. Many corporate residents in Good Hope want to see the city’s demographics fall in line with those of its wet neighbor to the north before they commit to developments that would change the business landscape.

“I’m not planning to sell alcohol, or open any more business that would sell alcohol,” said Allred, who himself has served two past terms on Good Hope’s city council. “But even if you don’t sell alcohol, your business is going to benefit from being located in an area where there are establishments that do sell. I think you see that, time and time again.”

Whether the interests of corporate residents will reconcile with those of Good Hope’s citizens is a matter city leaders say must be settled at the polls Tuesday. But, said mayor Corey Harbison, voting patterns will reveal what sort of city the people who elected him want to live in in the future.

“I think it’s up to our people,” Harbison said. “Along with the council, I’m elected to represent the interests of our people. If people like a small town with a couple of gas stations; a small-town feel, then they’re probably not going to vote ‘wet.’ But if you like growth, and want some diversity in the type of development that you see off the Interstate, you’re probably going to vote ‘wet.’

“Either way, it’s up to voters to decide, and we are going to work with anyone — residents or businesses — who approach the council and seek our help in cultivating whatever kind of city they want to live in.”



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