Dear Editor,

I just read this week’s Hartselle Enquirer and I do not understand all of these people that are speaking for or representing the Families for a Safe Hartselle that do not live in the Hartselle.

Gail Puckett, not a Hartselle resident, stated at the Hartselle City Council meeting that people can go Decatur or Priceville to get it.

That is the whole point. Those people do go to Decatur, Priceville and other towns to buy their beer, wine and liquor supplies. When they do those, tax dollars go to those towns.

When they do this, those same Hartselle residents make their other purchases at the same time. It is the 21st century and most people do one-stop shopping. Which means even more tax dollars that do not stay in Hartselle.

We need to give our Hartselle businesses a fair and fighting chance to compete against those businesses and keep our tax dollars right here in Hartselle.

Families for a Safe Hartselle have Jeff Johnson as their main spokesperson and he is not even a Hartselle resident. So, he obviously does not vote in Hartselle city elections. What does he care about local businesses?

In a time when our city is seeing decreased tax revenues, laying off employees and trying to balance a budget, here is something that may not fix the entire problem with the budget, but it will definitely be a step in the right direction.

Numbers do not lie, Priceville in its first full year posted $49,000 in revenues just for alcohol taxes and licenses. Hartselle is much larger and has many more possible locations than Priceville does, so $100,000 added to the Hartselle budget is a very realistic number. Plus various businesses in Priceville have also made it known that their total sales are on the increase.

This just goes to show that more people are doing one-stop shopping in Priceville and we could make this happen in Hartselle.

Jerry Henderson
Hartselle