Pastor's petition aims to banish beer

A local pastor is conducting a petition drive aimed at persuading the Brookshire Bros. Grocery chain to change its decision to sell beer and wine at its Diboll store.

The Rev. Bruce E. Frazier, pastor of First Assembly of God in Diboll, began the petition drive Feb. 17 and plans to end it Sunday, March 2. He has enlisted the Rev. Jerry Young of Jubilee Baptist Church and the Rev. Vic Bass of Faith Family Church to help. Frazier said that Diboll Mayor Bill Brown took a petition to circulate and that one had been sent to First Baptist Church.

City Council voted in December to allow Brookshire Bros. to sell alcoholic beverages, even though the store is directly across the street from Diboll's

primary school. State and city laws prohibit the sales of alcoholic beverages within 300 feet of a public school, but variances are allowed. Brown broke a 2-2 tie to allow the sales, but since has said he voted against legalizing alcohol sales in the 2006 election and doesn't think it's good for the city.

Frazier said he is not contending that anything illegal is going on. He simply is hoping to convince Brookshire management that they could generate a lot of good will in town by deciding not to sell the alcoholic products. He said people have told him they have quit the local store in favor of the Wal-Mart on U.S. 59 in south Lufkin; others have cut back their shopping at Brookshire Bros., he said.

He started the petition, Frazier said, because "we felt like with a school being so close, and they have two other outlets to sell beer," that beer sales at the grocery store are unnecessary for the company. The other outlets are convenience stores the company owns.

Young, pastor of Jubilee Baptist, appeared at February's council meeting to protest the December decision and find out ways to overturn it. He was told that petitioning for another wet-dry election was his most likely recourse.

Frazier said that it appears to him that the city's alcoholic beverage code does not properly track state law. He argues that city officials have said they were left with no choice but to approve the permit allowing the sales, but in fact they had the discretion to refuse it.

"They have the right to do it" - approve the permit - "but they should take responsibility for it," he said.

The company has no comment on the controversy, Gloria McDonald, director of public relations, said Monday.

For most of its history, which dates to the 1920s, Lufkinbased Brookshire Bros. did not sell alcoholic beverages at any of its properties. That began to change in 1999, when ownership of the company shifted to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan as Brookshire family members retired.