I wonder if anyone has seen the absolutely absurd display that is currently on Ada St. For those of you who are uninformed, someone has taken a V.W. Beetle and turned it on its side with a power pole resting against it. What is wrong with these great unwashed?

I've come to the conclusion that after the Nov 6th vote if I want to open a restaurant to service the citizens of Fannin County I'm going to open it in another county. Gilmer....perhaps? After Union votes in liquor in another year or so it may be a viable market as well. Because it is obvious that this county has no foresight. County sewage and water. Where you going to get the money? The state? Why would throwing a few million dollars our way help them. Guess my taxes will be going up in a few years. Oh goodie I can't wait. So be looking forward to the Fannin Family Restaurant & Bar located in Ellijay or Blairsville.


~A Vote "No" to alcohol is a Vote "Yes" to economic decline~

When an educated industrious family has occupied and worked the same land for over 200 years, they are entitled to make their opinion known. Those of us who are recent arrivals don’t have the right to insult people because their opinion is different.

Yea, like Ellijay huh? It's all death & destruction down there. You can't even pull into the Wal-Mart without running into a DUI driver coming out of Longhorn. I'm amazed that the Fannin preachers continue to patronize the place. LONGHORN KILLS.

You know what the alternative of the "Temperance Movement" is? To do NOTHING, and by doing so they are proclaiming that Fannin County is the "Brown Bag" Capital of Georgia! That's what the status quo is...and by voting "No", they themselves are promoting uncontrolled abuse of Alcohol.

Passing this (voting YES) will put the pouring of alcohol in the hands of the Restaurant and server with liabilities that will prevent them from letting patrons over indulge. But lets leave it the way it is, lets let the guy brown bag two $100.00 bottles of wine into the Toccoa River Valley Restaurant and lets let him drink both of these bottles because he's certainly not going to leave them and lets not hold the Restaurants liable because, hey it's the law and it's his wine, he can drink it if he wants to (he doesnt want to risk taking it home and have an open container) and then, because there are some irresponsible people in this world, lets let him drive back up Aska Road, putting every person he passes in mortal jeopardy. That's the alternative!! That's what is happening now, that's what happened this weekend, and that is the "Temperance Movements" chosen alternative.

Meanwhile, the county suffers with water and sewer system problems, development is stagnant, schools suffer, the job market suffers, and every month thousands of dollars of taxes and revenue are funneled into neighboring counties and lost by Fannin County (and the Temperance Movement).

Get your head out of the sand or out of your hymnal (certainly isn't in your Bible - or you would see the truth!) and wake up!!! Wasn't this country founded on Freedom. Don't for a minute think that our founding fathers did not enjoy a glass of wine with their meals! "They would roll over in their grave" to know that this type of attack on personal freedom is taking place by people who call themselves "Christians" and "Religious"! Maybe Fannin should defect from Georgia and the US and become the Fannin Socialist Republic (FSR)... since they are so interested in "controlling" peoples lives. The flag can be a Brown Bag.

All hail the Brown Bag!!

(p.s. - maybe the alternative - Fannin should put a tax on Brown Paper bags...maybe require only Fannin Approved Brown Bags...those that have the official FSR Brown Bag Tax Stamp)

Well from the number of beer cans that I've seen strewn across the roadside over the past 20+ years I would say that Fannin has had a problem with drinking and driving for a long time. The biggest problem is that nobody wants to enact some form of control; to regulate it. The same goes for land development and zoning. Nobody around here wants to go through the difficult buy necessary ordeal of developing a form of zoning for Fannin County until someone’s porch light is shining across the hollow into their bedroom. Only then do they cry foul.
Listen liquor by the drink is not some great white hope descending from the heavens to lead us all to better lands. It is pure and simple economics. I'll spell it out in simple, easy to understand terms
Scenario Status Quo:
Tourist come to Fannin-->Tourist spend money in shop-->Tourist work up an appetite and wants to wet his/her whistle with a little brewsky-->Tourist ask shop owner where to find restaurant with beer or wine-->Tourist told to go elsewhere-->Tourist may decide next time that other places are better to stay and spend hard earned cash.
Scenario Personal Choice:
Tourist come to Fannin-->Tourist spend money in shop-->Tourist work up an appetite and wants to wet his/her whistle with a little brewsky-->Tourist ask shop owner where to find restaurant with beer or wine-->Tourist told of various locations within the county and soon to be in city-->Tourist decides that this is best vacation ever and plans to return next year.
It’s so simple an amoeba could comprehend. It is simple economic law of Supply and Demand.It’s not about rendering asunder some unwritten law that nobody can back up with scripture. It’s not about some hair-brained idea of turning Blue Ridge into some metropolis. It’s about regulating something that a vast majority of the tourist that visit us and that many local citizens do themselves (whether in public or secretly in restaurant far, far away). It’s about giving our wonderful county a fighting chance to be something; to make its mark. Sure we want to preserve the beauty and we are glad that people come here. But we can't expect people to be laying down 50+ dollars to ride a smoky train around to look at dead leaves without giving them some other reason to be here. I wonder when it was that the citizens of our Great Republic began to lay down their God given freedoms and accept the ebb and tide of the angry majority? When did we lose our willingness to stand on our own two feet and make our own decisions about what was right for ourselves? When did God get into politics? Sometimes I see and hear the fervor of some of the zealots who rail against giving people an opportunity to choose for themselves, and I think to myself: What is the difference between many of us Americans and the radical Muslim terrorist?
What is the difference between some Islamist radical plotting and planning to bring about Sharia Law through atrocious acts of violence against our citizens and the pastor who mandates that it is God's will that this evil abomination of alcohol be wiped from the face of the earth? Why is it that we cower in horror as Islamic extremist, full of cowardice, preach to their followers that in the name of God they must go forth, sacrifice their lives to bring about social and political change and yet we think nothing of local parishioners who fight with such vehemence against alcohol in our county, but can be seen almost every week at local establishments that either serve or sell that which they hate?
Now I will be the first to admit that I have just made an apples to oranges comparison. I know that many on the “Temperance” bandwagon are very nice and wonderful citizens with no ill malice meant toward any. Yet some of the underlying truth does cry out to be examined by each and every one of us. Why do we fight bravely against the darkness of tyranny and radical theocratic rule set out to rip away the personal freedoms we enjoy so much, and yet we take no heed and voluntarily watch as our personal freedoms and choices are being ever-so-cleverly eroded away from us right in plain view? I wonder if sometime in our future we will lift our heads from the burden of a fight against militant oppression and realize that the enemy we’ve been so bravely and boldly fighting against didn’t have to invade us to take away our freedom our liberty. I wonder if we will realize that we ourselves forfeited our own independence.

Ok it’s late and I’ve built my soapbox way too high for my own good and I’m getting nauseated when I look down.

Ecclesiastes 9:7: "Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do."
Ecclesiastes 10:19a: "A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life merry."
Psalm 104:14-15: "He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart."

Ron - The issue of Server and Restaurant Liability is a very Valid point in this discussion but I do not see it (at least in this forum) as a main focus or argument for those of us "YES" voters. I have been employed in the Commercial Insurance Industry for 27 years. Servers should be trained on issues surrounding the serving of Alcohol including when to say no to a patron. Restaurants purchase coverage known as "Liquor Liability" for protection. Because of the "Litigious Society" we live in restaurant owners who serve alcohol should understand their "risk" and control it. Besides what is wrong with limiting the amount of alcohol consumption if the person being served is potentially a threat on the road and to society in an inebriated state of mind, especially if everyone in a party is heavily drinking... One question I would ask (if I was a server)... "Do you have a designated driver?" And if I were the restaurant owner I would provide free beverage for this person.

and your comment "What if someone goes home,gets into an argument and hurts or kills someone in their house because of a alcohol related domestic incident?" WHAT do you actually think NOT wetting the whistle of a train riding tourist with a brewsky is going to prevent this type of thing from happening????? COME ON!!!! Give me a break! People who you describe have deeper societal issues than what can be solved by not serving tourist a glass of wine with their meal. The scenario you describe is and has been going on in Fannin County since before Fannin was Fannin!!!

Amos & Andy always hits the "nail right on the head"!! Well said! I thought I would add an addition to the status quo

Scenario Status Quo:
Tourist come to Fannin-->Tourist spend money in shop-->Tourist work up an appetite and wants to wet his/her whistle with a little brewsky-->Tourist ask shop owner where to find restaurant with beer or wine-->Tourist told to go elsewhere (or go to Ingles and purchase their adult beverages and place in Brown Bag and go to only the "selected" Brown Bag restaurants)-->Tourist may decide next time that other places are better to stay and spend hard earned cash.

What is next for the "Temperance Movement" ? ... If they dont want alcohol in "their county" then why don't they set up road blocks at the county line to inspect vehicles for alcoholic beverages. This would be a good time to impose the "Brown Bag Tax Stamp"!

Maybe someone can answer this question? When did the county allow the selling of Beer and Wine? Did at some point the county say "Oh yeah we could earn needed revenue and taxes from the sell of alcohol in grocery stores"? What were the arguments then? What changed peoples minds at that point? .... What is the *&^%$#* difference?????