Right now in Tontitown you can't buy off sale liquor on Sundays. The Tontitown City Council is trying to change that. They're putting together a petition for an off-premise package which means you can buy alcohol and take it home.
“Liquor stores, Dollar General believes sells it, anybody that's in good standing with the state of Arkansas with their beer and wine liquor permit can sell," says Mike Zulpo, City Alderman.
A law passed in 1999, allows cities to pass local ordinances on Sunday.
“Right now there are only three cities taking advantage of it Wiederkehr Village, Altus and Eureka Springs, so it was just an advantage to try and get some revenue in the city of Tontitown,” adds Zulpo.
Employees at Jack's Liquor store says being open an extra day in the week will boost business.
“Everybody wants their alcohol on Sundays it seems and they have to go all the way to Missouri and now we can keep it local,” says Chris Pierce, employee at Jack’s Liquor Store.
And employees at Tontitown Liquor agree.
“It will definitely boost them definitely just from the other counties that are dry or that stay dry on Sundays so it will help us out and help them out,” adds Daniel Mulanax, employee at Tontitown Liquor.
128 signatures must be collected from registered voters who live within the city for the issue to be put on the November ballot.
And people we spoke to say the money spent on alcohol on Sundays needs to stay local.
“There`s a lot of places in the area that don`t serve alcohol or serve alcohol on Sundays and that would be just a big revenue boost,” says Marty Claussen.
“I think it would be a good thing to have liquor sales on Sunday because if you forgot to get your Sunday alcohol, you would be spending your money local money instead of going all the way to Missouri,” adds James Hipp.
A petition draft will be presented to the city council by the body's Committee of the Whole meeting on April 28th.