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November 18, 2009

Progress Jacksonville hires consultant, faces opposition

By Nathan Straus

nstraus@jacksonvilleprogress.com



Austin-based Texas Petition Strategies was hired to help the Progress Jacksonville committee try to get an item allowing sales of alcohol for off-premises consumption set for a city election.

“We looked at their credentials, interviewed twice and picked one that would do the best job,” said Committee Chairman George Douglas.

Though details of the payment terms are confidential, Douglas said the next step for the committee is to raise money from local businesses, restaurants and individuals.

“We’re still cautiously optimistic that Jacksonville voters will approve this step forward,” he said.

A few voices of opposition have risen in the weeks since the committee formed, though. Michael Eddy, pastor of First Assembly of God in Jacksonville, has said he opposes the possibility of an alcohol election in Jacksonville and the sale of alcohol for off-premises consumption in the city.

“Alcohol consumption is an addictive vice with a corrosive effect on family and society,” Eddy said. “It’s a vice like gambling or illicit drug use is a vice. It’s because of the addictive properties.”

Eddy said he even has an issue with alcohol consumption in moderation because he believes it can lead to an addiction. He described his childhood, when his father became an alcoholic, resulting in his parents’ divorce.

“We had to move away because he’d break into the house and threaten her,” he said.

For Eddy, opposition to alcohol consumption is not based entirely on religious beliefs, he said.

“I think Jacksonville would be better without an increase in the availability of alcohol,” Eddy said.

He said he does not drink, but knows one or two acquaintances who do.

Tyler Street Baptist Church came out against beer and wine sales in Jacksonville in an advertisement in Wednesday’s and today’s editions of The Jacksonville Daily Progress.

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