The votes are in!

BY NADINE ARMSTRONG

The Hants Journal

NovaNewsNow.com

The results are in and a strong majority have voted in favour of buying booze closer to home. Hundreds of patrons in Ellershouse and Brooklyn turned up for the Aug. 21 plebiscite to vote for or against liquor sales at their local corner stores.

In the meantime, the two retailers pushing for the right to sell spirits were biding their time and crossing their fingers.

“We knew the results by 7 p.m. last night,” Grant Tracey said Aug. 22. Tracey is a part owner of the Quick-way in Ellershouse. He said the results didn’t come as a surprise since customers have been asking for it for years. “I heard it was 81 per cent in favour so I guess customers will be happy to hear that.”

And he says it’s about time. “It’s super. Even 15 years ago we’d have tourist come in totally confused because they couldn’t find any wine. We needed to get with the times.”

Since there are no major renovations involved for this storeowner to start shelving spirits, they hope to be selling liquor by Labour Day weekend. “We missed the whole summer, but I guess if we push it we could catch the tail-end of the season,” Grant said.

Nervous at first

For storeowners Pat and Gary McLean, it may take a little longer since they plan to construct a walk-in cooler. Still, as soon as they receive the official papers from the liquor corporation, they’re set to give residents what they’ve asked for.

“As soon as they come with the paperwork, we’ll bull right ahead,” Pat said.

“I was pretty nervous at first,” she said of the plebiscite. “There seemed to be so few people out voting in the morning.”

But by the end of the day she said the number of residents who stopped to vote at the Brooklyn Fire Hall rose dramatically as residents stopped on the way home from work.

The unofficial count in Ellershouse was 283 for liquor sales and 64 against. In Brooklyn, the numbers were equally as emphatic: 293 for and 98 against.

“They made the effort to go and vote so it shows people really wanted this,” Pat said. “Our customer base supported us and we thank all those who took the time to vote.”

They hope to sell liquor at their Petro-Can in Brooklyn by early fall.