By Rupert Howell

Sardis aldermen rescinded a motion during a special meeting Tuesday that would have asked Mississippi’s Alcohol Beverage Control to extend hours of consumption in businesses with liquor by the drink licenses from 1-11 p.m. on Sundays.

The original motion passed unanimously the week prior during the regular monthly meeting at the request of restaurateur Doug Mahan, who operates Sardis Steak Seafood on Main Street and is the only licensed liquor by the drink or on-premises liquor licensee in the town.

Approximately two dozen residents attended the special meeting with the majority against the new hours. ABC controls times for its licensees to serve alcohol but usually follow reasonable requests made by local governing entities.

Sardis First Baptist pastor Howard Beam, whose church is the nearest to the Main Street eatery, presented aldermen with a petition of 158 names from five churches and spoke against additional hours.
Chamber of Commerce President Dale Hart, who regularly attends Sardis board meetings and has led the Chamber during a recent rejuvenation period, said he couldn’t see where additional hours of operation would hurt and cited it as an opportunity for growth.

Mahan said the request came not as a way to “save his business,” as someone in the crowd implied, but a way to, “grow his business.”

Prior to opening the meeting for comments Alderman-at-large Roy Scallorn, serving as mayor in absence of Rusty Dye, said  that aldermen should have tabled the request at the prior week’s meeting  and called for a public hearing before voting on a motion to make the change.

“I thought this was a public hearing,” one in the group stated.  Scallorn explained that a public hearing required proper notice published prior to the hearing.

Another responded that citizens weren’t given notice when the change was ordered during the previous meeting.

A unanimous vote, 3-0 with Alderman Rivers McArther absent, was taken in favor of rescinding the motion to request a change of hours for Sunday sales.

The motion did not include setting a public hearing on the matter.