Wet Next?

“There are definitely benefits to a community going ‘wet.’ It’s going to bring in extra revenue for the police department.”

Roger Guined, Resident & restaurant owner

Earlington, Kentucky

It’s wet in Earlington, Kentucky (population 1,559), and it has nothing to do with the rain. This is the kind of wet that comes after more than a century of prohibition. When the coal mines first opened in the 1870s, Earlington was a wild and wooly place—many saloons and a handful of slayings, according to town history. In 1882 town leaders had enough and put a halt to the drunken calamity, passing the first “dry” law in the county. And dry it has stayed until last month when townsfolk voted 158 to 107 to lift the ban. Feelings in town are mixed. A local restaurant owner called the mayor a visionary, and one woman says it will save her gas money driving to neighboring Madisonville everyday to buy alcohol for her husband. But another resident says it spells drunkenness and trouble, and a local preacher asks what next: liquor stores and night clubs? Who knows . . . maybe even happy hour and ladies night out.

Read the Article ® Citizens speak out on Earlington going “wet”