Nelson County authorizes Sunday liquor sales

Landmark News Service

Only two weeks after a Bardstown city ordinance went into effect allowing the sale of packaged liquor on Sundays, Nelson County has followed suit.

Magistrates voted to allow the sales in a 3-2 vote on second reading, with Third District Magistrate Bernard Ice dissenting and Fourth District Magistrate Tim Hutchins abstaining due to what he felt is a conflict of interest. Hutchins owns a convenience store and is involved in a pending lawsuit with the city involving annexation.

Nelson County Judge-Executive Dean Watts asked magistrates to amend the existing alcohol ordinance in May after he had been approached by store owners outside city limits who thought they would be at a disadvantage once Bardstown’s ordinance went into effect.

The ordinance applies to incorporated cities without an alcohol ordinance that prohibits sales, county attorney John Kelley said. Chaplin is the only voting district in Nelson County that does not allow the sale of alcoholic beverages. By contrast, all of LaRue County is dry.