This Election Day, Swain County citizens will have the opportunity to vote whether to allow the sale of beer and wine in businesses. Currently, alcohol can only be sold by businesses in the city limits of Bryson City and by resorts.
Initially the referendum added in April, 2024 only allowed citizens to vote for or against off-premises sales, meaning businesses would only be able to sell packaged alcohol for customers to take home. The referendum was unanimously passed by Swain County Board of Commissioners.
After more advocating from local businesses, the board voted whether to add an on-premises option to the referendum. The update was passed 4-1 with David Loftis as the only opposing vote.
Nicole Rogers, owner of Nantahala General Store, was the first to approach the Board of Commissioners in April about alcohol sales.
“It’s been an ongoing issue for a lot of business owners that are outside city limits that want the freedom to build their business and expand,” Rogers said. “Entrepreneurs who might be interested in opening a restaurant outside of city limits don’t have the ability to sell beer and wine.”
Part of being an educated voter is reading through referendums carefully to understand what is being decided. Rogers worries that the wording on the referendums can be difficult to understand and cautions voters to read carefully before making a decision.
Mark Hamel was a Swain County voter who was confused by the wording.
“I don’t really like the idea of on-premises, if you mean like colleges, schools or something like that,” Hamel said.
On-premises sales do not mean selling alcohol on school grounds, instead it allows customers to drink beer or wine at the property they bought it.
After explaining what on-premises meant, Hamel stated his support for the referendum.
“Dry counties are kind of tough because some people have to go 10 or 15 miles to get a six pack of beer or a bottle of wine,” Hamel said. “But it’d be nice to come here sit down, have a beer, have a hot dog, go shopping. I agree with that.
Hamel has lived in Swain County for seven years. To get a pack of beer, he drives to Ingles in Bryson City five miles from his house.
“But we have a gas station, which a lot of places have gas stations that sell beer. But we have one two miles from our house, but it’s a dry county they can’t sell it,” Hamel said.
Rogers’ parents built Nantahala General Store 40 years ago. Rogers took over the business 10 years ago.
“Every third person that comes in the door asks us, ‘do you sell beer?’ And we say no it’s a dry county,” Rogers said. “This little business supports four families and our sales directly impact us.”
A lot of businesses in Swain County are family-owned and rely on sales and tourism. One of those businesses is Darnell Farms.
Nate Darnell, co-owner of Darnell Farms, was one of the two business owners that joined Rogers when she addressed the Swain County Board of Commissioners the second time.
“My friends asked me to go down [to the commissioner’s meeting] because they knew I don’t mind speaking in front of people and I have a business, a business that could benefit from on-premise sales,” Darnell said. “Off-premise sales may not be beneficial to me, but I could sell wines that we make here on the farm.”
Darnell and his sister took over their father’s farm 10 years ago. As they took over, they shifted the focus away from commercial farming and more towards tourism. The farm still sells commercial produce but focuses on creating an experience for visitors.
“I call this farm OG agri-tourism, we started before anybody else did,” Darnell said. “It was out of necessity because farming isn’t always the most lucrative business to be in so we had to find ways of entertaining people.”
More can benefit from the referendum being passed than just Swain County businesses.
“It’s missed tax dollars for Swain County,” Rogers said. “Those tax dollars are really needed within the fire department, the police department. I know that they’ve all been needing help.”
Because of the Cherokee reservation and national parks, Swain County can only tax less than 25% of its property. Rogers believes the referendums would boost the county’s economy and could lead to new businesses also contributing to the county.
“There’s so many restaurants inside Bryson City. We don’t need anymore restaurants in town, we need more restaurants out of town,” Rogers said. “What if some new restaurants actually started showing up outside of town limits just because they would now have the option of selling beer and wine to their patrons. That would benefit the county and also create more opportunities for employment.”
“We’ve always wanted to have a true, legitimate, no-arguments-to-be made, farm to table restaurant,” Darnell said. “If I had that, I would like to be able to offer a young man or a young lady a cold drink of their choice with their meal.”
“If [Swain County residents] vote in favor of letting us have on-premises sales and letting certain places around here have off-premises sales then I’m going to applaud their trust in us to do that in a responsible manner,” Darnell said.
