The discovery of an enforcement glitch could end the sale of hard liquor on Sundays in 132 Maine cities and towns until June.
State officials discovered last week that voters in those communities never approved Sunday liquor sales, as required by a law passed in the 1960s.
State officials were puzzled about how the law got overlooked and city and town clerks said they were unaware of the problem.
The Maine Department of Public Safety expects voluntary compliance from all licensed agency stores, said spokesman Stephen McCausland. “That means we will enforce it immediately and until the glitch is corrected.”
Local referendums appear to be the only way do that, McCausland said. Voters will have to approve a referendum question before local stores can sell spirits such as vodka, whiskey and brandy on Sundays.
That won’t happen in Lewiston for at least six months, said City Clerk Kathy Montejo.
“We can’t do it this November. Those ballots have already been printed,” Montejo said. The next regular election isn’t until June 2004, she said.
The glitch affects 132 communities with state agency liquor licenses. Stores in Auburn, Lewiston, Lisbon, Livermore Falls, Mechanic Falls, Farmington, Jay, Kingfield, Rangeley, Wilton, Andover, Canton, Fryeburg, Norway, Oxford and Rumford are all affected.
It also stops sales in Portland, Bangor, Augusta and Brunswick.
“In fact, Waterville is the only big community we could find in the whole state that does allow Sunday sales,” McCausland said.
The glitch dates back to Maine’s blue laws, which forbade the sale of items such as cigarettes and alcohol on Sunday.
The state left those decisions up to local voters in the late 1960s, McCausland said. Voters in most Maine communities approved exemptions to allow the sale of wine, beer and liquor at stores and at restaurants.
But the 132 towns did not specifically address Sunday sales.
The problem was discovered last week when Public Safety employees were reviewing licenses for several stores in Augusta. Public Safety took over control of liquor licenses this spring.
“A staffer began looking at the books to see if Augusta had ever authorized liquor license sales on Sundays,” McCausland said. “He dug deeper and discovered dozens of communities had never done that.”
Auburn City Clerk Mary Lou Magno said Auburn voted to allow most sales in 1969. But Sunday retail sales slipped notice, she said.
“I think it was just an oversight,” Magno said. “I think it was one of those old laws the state may not have enforced. It certainly wasn’t intentional. I think they forgot about it and just somehow stumbled on it now.”
Bars and restaurants won’t be affected, and neither will beer and wine sales – just retail sales of hard liquor.
Ballot questions
Lewiston’s Montejo briefed the City Council about the changes on Tuesday and councilors agreed to put the issue on their Oct. 21 agenda. At that time, the council is likely to put the Sunday sales question on the June ballot.
Nelson Peters III said he’s not taking any chances. Peters, the general manager of Roopers Beverages and Redemptions in Lewiston and Lisbon, began collecting signatures Tuesday to get the question on the June ballot. He needs 1,800 signatures to guarantee a spot, he said. He’d collected 40 by Wednesday afternoon.
“We may just set up a table at the polling places this November and start collecting signatures, if it comes down to that,” he said. “The fact is that a vote is the one way of changing this. We just want to make sure a vote happens.”
Peters said he would leave it up to his cashiers to not sell liquor.
“We can’t really do anything else,” he said.
staylor@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
