Posted on 04/20/2017 7:07:58 AM PDT by stan_sipple
A decision was made on whether four beer stores in Whiteclay will have their liquor licenses renewed.
The Nebraska Liquor Control Commission voted to deny the license renewals for the four beer stores in the town of eight people.
The three-member panel cited inadequate law enforcement in the unincorporated village of eight residents.
Most of that beer, amounting to almost 4 million cans annually, is sold to residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation, located a mile away across the South Dakota border where alcohol is banned.
The decision comes after more than 10 hours of testimony during the hearing two weeks ago.
At the hearing, some of the residents described seeing numerous liquor violations, assaults, human trafficking and slow or sometimes nonexistent emergency response times.
A Sheridan County commissioner and sheriff testified there was adequate law enforcement but admitted to doubling this year's sheriff's budget to try to increase its five-deputy force.
The licensed establishments will be allowed to continue to sell beer until their current licenses expire in May.
They are also likely to file court action to challenge Wednesday's decision by the Liquor Control Commission.
Victory songs and prayers were heard Wednesday night at the Lincoln Indian Center as people there celebrated a decision they said is a long time coming, but the first step in making Whiteclay a better place.
"I was ecstatic," Allen Schreiber said. "I couldn't have been happier. It's long, long overdue."
"I started crying because, you know, I never thought this would happen," Mechelle Skywalker said. "We got rid of the alcohol now, but we still need to start healing our people."
Others hope the town will grow and businesses will come.
They also said it will be safer.
"This is a huge step in the right direction," Schreiber said. "To bring back the pride of what was once a great nation. I'm very happy about it."
Whiteclay activists John Maisch and Frank LaMere released the following statement last week:
"License denials will result in a financial windfall for Sheridan County. Residents will finally get their local law enforcement back. The hundreds of thousands of additional dollars that county commissioners have proposed spending on Whiteclay law enforcement can be repurposed by the county for more important projects.
"The NLCC decision won't really affect us one way or another. If the Commissioners deny re-licensure, we roll up our sleeves and get busy providing whatever help we can provide to the Oglala Lakota Nation in its efforts to restore their communities. If the Commissioners re-approve the licenses, then we're back to work collecting testimony and evidence about the lack of enforcement and lawlessness that exists in Whiteclay."
Yeah, I believe we tried that once before back in the early 1900's....hint, it doesn't work out very well or solve anything, basic law of supply and demand, if there is demand, someone WILL find a way to supply it.
Good grief, can’t even have a cold beer after a hard days work? What’s this world coming to?
EIGHT PERSON TOWN WITH FOUR PACKYS ?
WTH ?
(PACKY ... Bostonian, "package store" ... where you get all liquor in Boston.)
I spent some time working in an Inuit village in northern Canada. Booze was banned. Even though a total outsider, I quickly found out exactly how the huge quantities of vodka(mostly) were being smuggled in, and who was doing the smuggling.
I guess the store owners can stock up on alcohol based hair sprays often referred to as “Cheyenne Champagne”.
It will be fascinating to see whether or not the town will grow and along with it the county. Or whether it will shrivel up and blow away in the dust. I bet the loss of ‘alcohol tax money’ will be a severe blow to the county.
In any case I would suggest that ‘follow the money’ be prudent. The residents of the Indian reservation will get their beer from ‘somewhere’.
The county in KY in which I live was dry when we moved here six years ago. In fact, the county just north of us is the first “wet” county a traveler encounters if they are headed north from the Tennessee border.
So, right at the county line is a liquor store called the “fist stop”. And if you are coming from the wet county and driving into the dry county, the sign says “last stop”.
The guy that owns that place is one of the biggest opponents of my county going wet. go figure. :)
BTW, our county went “moist” a few years ago and last november the main town in the county went wet. heh.
Kentucky STILL does two of the stupidest things this country ever came up with: School bussing and prohibition. The head of the state police said that if the entire state went wet, meth use would go down by 25%.
Grew up in a KS border town with Colorado. They sold beer on Sundays and my county didnt.
Math aint hard. DO IT!
Is Amazon doing drone booze drop offs yet?
Assuming that the store is open 24/7/365 .....
That's 10,959 cans of beer PER DAY,
Or
457 cans per hour.
Exactly. Those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it.
Once again stupid doing stupid things. In this case I understand they believe they are doing the right thing but fail to understand the ingenuity of people to acquire whatever the product is if they want it bad enough. This will cause resentment as well and an unhappy people. Someone will simply use trucks to make “beer runs” farther away to get 100 or more cases at a time and sell them at a profit to pay for their time, effort, and vehicle wear and tear.
Prohibition doesn’t work with any product it has ever been tried on.
After the XL pipeline defeat and now this. The War Belt is being passed around.
That's 12,779 cans per day...
Or...
1597 cans per hour.
Staggering. (pun intended)
Reading comprehension.
Whiteclay is in Nebraska where beer can be sold, two miles from the Pine Ridge Reservation in SD where it cannot. Hope this clears it up for you, or I could Google it for you.
The town sits a mile away from an Indian Reservation. The 8 people in town do not account for 4 million cans of beer annually.
114.25 cans per store per hour.
Naahhh ... I’m already looking like an idiot for not reading and comprehending before posting.
So close the only businesses in Whiteclay and the town of eight people will grow and attract new businesses. I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one. Did anyone consider the economic loss and loss of tax revenue from closing these businesses? The sale of 4 million cans of beer annually isn’t exactly chump change.
Banning alcohol keeps outsiders from drinking.
I went to college in a dry town but Weed was everywhere.
In Nebraska, the excise taxes on beer, wine, and liquor are paid at the state level, not county.
From what I've gathered so far, county revenue in Nebraska is primarily property tax revenue (and probably fines collected for any civil issues). I'm trying to find information on the Sheridan County budget/revenue sources and if revenue sources are anything other than property taxes and fines for the county... I've found that excise taxes simply go into the general fund for the state, but that's it so far.
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