White Lake votes on liquor-by-the-drink sales in municipal election

WHITE LAKE — Voters here have the opportunity to vote “yea” or “nay” on the always hot-button issue of liquor-by-the-drink sales in this southeastern North Carolina vacation resort.

Beer and wine have been available in the town of 751 full-time residents since voters approved those sales in 2015. Those alcohlic beverages are now sold at about seven spots in town, including Rondaveu Pizzeria and the Marina at White Lake. Liquor sales are allowed in the town, but White Lake has not had an ABC package store for years, according to Chris Williams, director of the Bladen County Board of Elections.

At this time, liquor by the drink is not allowed inside the town limits.

On their municipal election ballots, residents will determine whether or not the sales of cocktails are a go in a mixed-beverage referendum.

Election Day is Nov. 2, when voters will come to the town’s Fire Department on White Lake Drive to vote on this measure and three open seats among commissioners who serve four-year terms. Or, residents can vote early; White Lake is among the municipalities participating in the one-stop process, which began last week at the Bladen County Board of Elections, 301 S. Cypress St. in Elizabethtown.

On Feb. 9, the White Lake commissioners voted to place the sale of mixed drinks on this fall’s ballot.

Those sales nearly always create contention among residents, especially, it seems, when the election is held in a small, traditionally conservative Southern town.

“I think that any adult, especially those who pay their taxes and handle all their responsibilities, should have the right to decide. It’s their choice in life within the law,” said 33-year-old William Booth, who has lived in White Lake for four years.

Sitting at a table having lunch inside The Dive, right by the fishing pier at Grand Regal at Goldston’s Beach, Booth said he was undecided if he was going to vote in this election. If he did, he said, he would vote to pass the resolution to allow liquor-by-the-drink sales in White Lake.

“I think we’re a little behind the times,” he said.

A man with a long gray and white beard sat in a pickup just outside a Sunoco station in town. The man, who preferred not to give his name, differed in opinion.

“They’re trying to turn this into an adult place,” he said. “It’s all about the kids. For me, it’s for the kids.”

White Lake has long promoted itself as a family destination, and for some residents, the legal sales of liquor-by-the-drink in the town limits would only damage that long-standing reputation and bring on what they regard as additional issues. For others, the availability of mixed beverages would be a choice for residents and visitors, while bringing in additional revenues to the municipality.

In May, The Glass Bottom opened as part of the renovated and newly named Grand Regal at Goldston’s Beach.

“We’ve got beer and wine. If passed, I’ll be adding that to our menu,” Jake Womble said of mixed drinks.

Womble, the 29-year-old president of the Grand Regal at Goldston’s Beach, clearly understands the monetary value of incorporating liquor by the drink into the operation. At the same time, he expressed empathy for those who want to see the resolution fail at the ballot box. He knows the tradition of the town where he grew up.

“Anybody that’s against it, I get it,” he said, “It is a family-oriented destination. I want it to remain that.”

Ultimately, however, the decision is up to majority rule.

“Obviously, it’s before the town’s citizens to go out and vote,” said Womble. “It all lays in their hands for the decision to be made. But at the end of the day, most towns seem to have mixed beverages allowed, and it’s legal. That would be the thing for me. It’s up to the citizens to vote on it.”

Through its sales, he said, liquor by the drink would bring in more revenue to the town. He stressed the need to manage those potential sales, but mixed-beverage availability in White Lake “would be a huge benefit to our community … It is a positive attribute to have as long as you stay on top managing it.”

The Rev. Cameron McGill would beg to differ. McGill, who is 47, is pastor of the Lake Church on White Lake Drive.

Besides being a man of the cloth, he sits on the county Board of Commissioners.

During an interview, the pastor said he was speaking against mixed beverages as “a citizen.”

“I’m really amazed not more people are speaking out about it,” he said on Thursday. “I don’t understand it personally why there’s such a desire for it. Even among our churches. Churches are struggling right now. At one time, the churches were pretty united against alcohol and beer and wine and liquor, but now there’s silence from most churches — ‘We’re not going to get involved.’ I think the reason is, most people feel like we fought it so hard in the past, and we lost.

“At some point, you just say, ‘Well, it’s inevitable.’ And that’s a shame,” McGill said. “I’m not going to relent on fighting it because I think it’s a cancer that affects all segments of society. It’s not a healthy lifestyle.”

McGill, who has served as the minister of the Lake Church since 2014, said alcohol sales have never been a positive on the White Lake community.

“Part of what has made our community special, quaint, almost a safe haven, has been the fact that through the years, until recently, has been a dry town,” he said.

Dean Hilton, a co-owner of the Goldston’s Beach property, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Goldston Womble, Jake Womble’s uncle and the mayor of White Lake for 35 years, has lived in the town for all his 71 years, except to earn a college education.

“That’s a hard call to make,” he replied, when asked if he thinks the mixed drink referendum will pass. He noted that he wasn’t surprised that the beer and wine referendum would pass six years ago.

“I thought that it would,” he said. “Some people feel different about it — liquor by the drink — than they do beer and wine. I would just think it would be a pretty close vote would be my expectation.”

The mayor said that generally speaking, more people tend to come out to vote “when the ballot contains more issues.”

“I think that with us being a commercial resort,” he said, “there are people who come there and expect to find what they find in their own homes and communities. And most everywhere you go now allows that. And we had a vote not too long ago about beer and wine. You’ve got beer and wine in Elizabethtown; you have mixed drink sales in Elizabethtown. When we passed the beer and wine resolution in White Lake, I didn’t notice any difference at all. We didn’t have any problems at all from it.

“Some of the businesses owners that are there wanted to pursue having liquor by the drink,” he added. “Felt like it would be good for their business because, again, that’s what people expect when they go to a resort. As long as a business handles it in a responsible manner, I don’t think we’ll have any problems with liquor by the drink.”