MOULTRIE — City council didn’t show mercy on a convenience-store owner, who called council “anti-business,” and wanted the city’s ordinance concerning alcoholic sales by minors to mirror state law.

Tom Bailey, a convenience-store owner in Moultrie, told council at Tuesday’s meeting that requiring persons selling alcohol to be 21 or older puts a hardship on his business.

“I own 27 (convenience) stores in eight counties and eight municipalities, and Moultrie is the only town that I have a problem in,” he said.

According to Georgia law, persons 18 and older can sell alcoholic beverages.

Convenience-store workers, who commonly man the businesses alone, must be able to sell alcohol, he told council.

“I strongly feel that 18-year-olds are responsible enough to sell alcohol. … They’re old enough to be firefighters, policemen. … I’ve got an 18-year-old Colquitt County High School graduate who’s ready to go to work. But I can’t hire him because you’re ordinance won’t allow me to,” he said. “He’s got the keys to the store and the keys to the safe, but he can’t work for me.”

Moultrie City Ordinance 6-202 says that “handling or possession of alcoholic beverages by a person under the minimum age set by law in connection with his employment shall not be considered a violation … However, such underage person shall not sell alcoholic beverages.”

In essence, workers at convenience stores, restaurants, grocery and liquor stores in Moultrie can stock coolers, carry alcohol to customers’ vehicles and even put it on the counter — they just can’t sell it.

Mayor Bill McIntosh told Bailey that council was not “anti-business,” but was just trying to “balance competing interests” in the community.

“We have to consider all the interests. Your point of view and our point of view are on different sides of the fence … they just don’t match,” he said.

McIntosh also said that people between 18 and 21 are more likely to have friends in the same age group and are more likely to sell alcohol to them.

“It’s more of a temptation of an 18-year-old to sell to his peers,” he said. “Someone who is 21 is likely to have friends 21 and older.”

Bailey also contested Moultrie’s law concerning the responsible party if a clerk is caught selling to underage people.

“The ordinance is very punitive to the company,” he said. “The person who breaks the law is the lawbreaker.”

Moultrie law holds the store or company responsible if a clerk is caught selling to people under 21.

In other cities, such as Valdosta, Bailey said, the clerk is held accountable if he/she breaks the law by selling to people under 21.

Another Moultrie businessman, Randy Bannister Jr., co-owner of Blue Sky Grill, also thinks Ordinance 6-202 puts a burden on his business and his hiring practices.

“I understand why the laws are in effect, but it doesn’t make any difference if they’re 18 or 21,” said Bannister, who did not attend the council meeting. “People who are 18 are no more likely to sell alcohol to minors than 21-year-olds are. … It just makes it harder to find help.”

Bannister said he hires workers under 21 anyway, but has to have someone 21 or over carry alcoholic drinks from the bar to the customer’s table.

“It just puts a burden on a small restaurant like this one,” he said.

Restaurant servers must be issued a beer card from the city to serve alcohol and take a two-hour course sponsored by the Responsible Vendors Association of Moultrie.

Bannister and other alcohol vendors are urged by council to join the MRVA, headed by Becky Kinyon, who owns Tommy’s Package Store in Moultrie.

“Moultrie’s hard,” Kinyon said. “An alcohol license is a privlege. The churches don’t want us here anyway. I go with the city because I need the city. All I have is that store, and without the city (government), I wouldn’t have anything.”

Other items on council’s agenda Tuesday were:

Moultrie resident Marvin Thompson vehemently complained about the city’s procedures concerning late utility bill payments. His power was turned off twice because his bill





wasn’t paid because he didn’t receive it in the mail, as did several residents in his neighborhood, he said. Thompson claimed that his stock in his refrigerator and freezer spoiled when the power was turned off.

He said that in the 44 years he has been a customer, he has never before been late in paying his bills to the city.

Council agreed to reconsider its procedures and perhaps make changes,

Tom Rogers, an Industrial Drive resident, wanted the city to annex his property, which contains a golf course. Rogers’ property abuts Adel Highway, which was on an original annexation proposal, but it was taken off when residents complained to county commission. The annexation of other proposed areas was approved by the legislature in April.

Council told Rogers they would annex his property if they could find a way to do so. One possibility, officials said, is annexing the right-of-way on Industrial Drive so that it abuts Rogers’ property. But would have to confer with Colquitt County Commission and wait until the next legislative session.

Heard first and second readings of an ordinance setting speed limits on those portions of roads where rights-of-way were annexed earlier this year. Those areas include: one mile Lower Meigs Road — remains 55 mile per hour, 0.65 mile of Clubview Drive — to be zoned 30 mph, 0.95 mile of Industrial Drive — to be zoned 45 mph, and portions of U.S. 319 Business (South Main Street), West Bypass (Ga. Highway 111) and U.S. 319 (Ga. Highway 35) will all remain 45 or 55 mph as marked by the Georgia Department of Transportation.

Following the meeting, council went into closed session to discuss land acquisition and litigation.