Oak Ridge voters reject liquor by the drink, second time in four years

For the second time in four years, voters in Oak Ridge have rejected a ballot measure that would have allowed a local restaurant to serve liquor by the drink.

Voters Tuesday turned down the measure by seven votes, 30 to 23. Four years ago, a similar measure was defeated by three votes.

The village board did not take a stand on the issue but agreed to put it on the ballot as a result of a petition effort, board chairman Charley Schoen said last month.

Schoen said the defeat means the board won’t have to implement new liquor regulations.

“Less work I will have to do,” he said.

Oak Ridge area resident Charlie Glueck, one of the investors in the Flying Bluejay Cafe, said the ownership group wanted to sell alcohol during dinner hours only in an effort to make the business more profitable.

He and others circulated the petition, collecting 42 signatures to put the issue before voters.

Glueck was out of town Tuesday and unavailable for comment.

He said before the election “our intentions are not to put a tavern in Oak Ridge” but to sell alcohol by the drink only during evening hours, from 5 p.m. to closing at 8 or 9 p.m.

But Schoen’s wife, Jessica, voiced concern at a public meeting last month about opening the door for future liquor establishments.

“I just don’t think alcohol is ever going to benefit our community,” she said.

The liquor measure was one of only two issues on the ballot in Cape Girardeau County. The other was a bond issue in the Millersville Rural Fire Protection District.

In the two elections combined, 355 voters went to the polls, amounting to just more than 11% of the registered voters eligible to cast ballots, election officials said.

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