Alcohol proposition passes; Mercer, Moore re-elected to Breckenridge City Commission
By Carla McKeown/Breckenridge Texan
With 260 total votes cast in Early Voting and on Election Day, today, May 6, local voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 1, which authorizes the legal sale of all alcoholic beverages, including mixed beverages, in the City of Breckenridge, according to the unofficial results released by the City this evening.
The results were 238 votes for the proposition and 22 against it; less than 9 percent of the total votes cast were against the proposition. According to the report, there were 168 votes cast on the proposition in Early Voting (April 24-28 and May 1-2) with 154 for and 14 against. Today, there were 92 votes cast on the proposition — 84 for it and 8 against it.
“Thank you to the people of Breckenridge for seeing the importance for our city to pass this and afford our community more opportunities and a huge financial impact to the city,” J.B. Sparks, chairman of the Breckenridge Downtown Development Council, said in a statement this evening after the results were released. “Now the BDDC board and our Breckenridge Economic Development Corp. can begin recruiting potential restaurants and other related businesses that would not even consider our community until this had been finalized in our community. The financial impact from this has great potential.”
This journey over the last couple of years has taken a lot of meetings and discussions on how Breckenridge could be positively impacted financially by the sale of alcohol beverages, which include mixed beverages, by the BDDC Board members. We as a board wanted to see continued growth in our downtown district, and this was the only hope of seeing that accomplished.
This issue was well thought out and discussed at great lengths before our board members began the many hours of a petition drive. After tonight’s phone call and text from city officials, it’s exciting to know that our hard work has paid off, not to mention our city community supported this on a landslide with their vote.
Now the BDDC board and our Breckenridge Economic Development Corp. can begin recruiting potential restaurants and other related businesses that would not even consider our community until this had been finalized in our community. The financial impact from this has great potential.
Thank you to the people of Breckenridge for seeing the importance for our city to pass this and afford our community more opportunities and a huge financial impact to the city.
Thank you,
JB Sparks
Chairman of BDDC
The BDDC started gathering signatures last year for a petition to have an election on the alcohol issue. They collected more than the required number of signatures and presented the petition to City officials last fall.
Sparks said the BDDC, which was created by the Breckenridge Economic Development Corp. a couple of years ago, sought to get alcohol sales approved as a way to bring in more businesses to Breckenridge, specifically restaurants to the downtown area.
The BDDC is interested not only in bringing in more restaurants to Breckenridge but also to increase the tax revenue for the City in order to help pay for things like street repairs, he said.
Because the Local Option Election was only for the City of Breckenridge and did not apply to areas outside the city limits, only registered voters who live in Breckenridge were allowed to vote on the issue. Voters in Graham passed a similar proposition in that community last year.
In 2018, Breckenridge voters approved a proposition to allow the sale of wine and beer with 17 percent alcohol in the City of Breckenridge. The previous limit had allowed only beer and other low-level alcohol drinks, such as wine coolers, to be sold. That proposition passed with 982 “For” votes and 266 “Against” votes.
City Commission Election
Today’s election also included two City Commission positions, Place 3 and Place 4.
Incumbent Gary Mercer and Raymond S. Ensey ran for Place 4, and Mercer came out ahead by 7 votes. According to the unofficial results from the City, Mercer had a total of 118 votes, and Ensey had 111 votes. In Early Voting, Mercer received 80 votes to Ensey’s 66, and in today’s polls, Mercer had 38 votes and Ensey had 45.
Vince Moore ran unopposed for Place 3 and received 213 votes, 142 in Early Voting and 71 today, according to the tabulation.
(Top photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)
