ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 11, 1997 TAG: 9704110063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRISTOPHER BROOKE LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
The governor cited local opposition in vetoing liquor-by- the-drink at Olde Mill Golf Resort after the House OK'd it.
Gov. George Allen vetoed a bill this week that would have brought liquor-by-the-drink sales to a Carroll County resort area along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
The decision affecting liquor sales at Olde Mill Golf Resort rested with Allen after the House of Delegates rejected an amendment proposed by the governor. The amendment was a re-enactment clause, under which the bill would not become law unless approved again by both the House and the Senate in 1998.
"Since this bill passed the 1997 regular session of the General Assembly, I have received hundreds of letters and calls from Carroll County citizens objecting to this bill," Allen said in a prepared statement.
While similar liquor-by-the-drink requests have been granted through legislation, it was not used "to override such intense and broad-based local opposition."
The Galax-Carroll-Grayson Chamber of Commerce supported the bill, but the Carroll Board of Supervisors said a referendum should have been held to gauge public support.
State Sen. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Martinsville, who represents a portion of Carroll County, thought the governor made the right decision with his veto.
"It would have been easy for him to sign the bill into law, and I'm grateful he decided to veto it," he said.
The bill had the support of many Republicans in the General Assembly.
Olde Mill General Manager Hagen Giles said the decision is a disappointment, but won't harm the resort's business.
"It was never something that was going to make or break us," he said. "We've got a first-class operation here, and we want to add that, but we'll go right on."
The author of the bill, Del. Chip Woodrum, D-Roanoke, was surprised by the governor's veto.
Woodrum said Allen previously supported similar measures when he was in the House of Delegates, specifically, allowing Mountain Lake Resort, located adjacent to Jefferson National Forest in Giles County, to sell mixed drinks.
Woodrum wrote to Allen last week to reiterate the measure's importance to the area's economy.
The bill could benefit Olde Mill by attracting business from the parkway, which is the source of 90 percent of its business, Woodrum wrote.
The bill was amended to limit its scope by affecting only property near mile marker 187.
Woodrum quoted a letter from Carroll County Administrator Dave Grove stating that the board of supervisors would support the bill if it included a specific location.
Grove said that interpretation takes his comments out of context.
Because legislative proponents of the bill informed county officials it would "sail through" the legislature, Carroll sought an amendment to narrow the impact, Grove said.
"We did our darnedest to kill the thing, but if it was going to sail through, we wanted to limit the exposure to the Olde Mill," Grove said.
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