They could vote on it this May.
Angelina County is a partially wet county. You can buy beer and wine throughout the county, and some restaurants may sell liquor or mixed drink. The few bars, such as The Country Club, operate as private clubs, where individuals wanting to drink must have a membership. To buy a bottle of liquor, you have to cross one of two rivers that serve as the county’s boundary lines.
Bar owners want to change those laws. In November, a coalition began collecting signatures to trigger an election. If voters agree, bar owners would be allowed to advertise more widely, membership would no longer be required to drink at a bar, and liquor could be sold countywide.
The change in those laws would only be for unincorporated areas of the county. Cities would maintain their own rules.
Following the end of prohibition, Texas left the issue of liquor sales up to individual jurisdictions rather than adopt a statewide stance. There are only three totally dry counties left in Texas: Roberts, Kent and Borden, located in the Panhandle and West Texas.
There are about 55 counties throughout the state that are considered completely wet, meaning you can purchase beer, wine or liquor at convenience stores, restaurants or bars. They don’t require a membership, and many other rules are less strict.
The laws in the rest of Texas vary depending on what county you’re in, and even what part of that county. For example, in Lufkin, the largest city in Angelina County, you can buy a can of beer or a bottle of wine from the local grocery store. In Burke, which is just a few miles south of Lufkin on Highway 59, you can’t.
The owners of Bubba T’s, a bar in Hudson, which is about 10 miles from The Country Club, launched the petition in November. Business owners across the county agreed to help, including fellow bars like The Country Club, Jim Ann’s Bar and the South First Bar & Grill.
“As a private club, we have more rules than any other open county or wet county clubs,” said Katie Self, manager of The Country Club. “We have to have memberships. Our customers are not allowed to go outside with open containers. We can’t have anything outside unless it’s fenced in. We’re taxed more on everything. And we don’t want to have to do that anymore.”
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The coalition of bars has until Jan. 20 to collect about 8,600 signatures from registered Angelina County voters — 35% of the total number of votes cast in the 2022 gubernatorial election. If they are successful, voters would have the final say during the May election.
Seven years ago there were five dry counties left in Texas. Thirty years ago, in 1996, there were 53. The state in which the Austin Lounge Lizards wrote the song “A Hundred Miles of Dry” is very different today. I’ve been interested in these odd elections, including one close to home, for awhile now. What can I say? We all like what we like. There’s opposition to this of course, and the petitions haven’t been turned in yet, so who knows. As is my wont, I’ll keep an eye on this.