ACTIVISTS AIM TO DRY OUT SOUTH VALLEY

[PARA]DRAPER - Upscale, quiet and family-oriented, Draper is filling
up fast. But filling a glass with beer, wine or a cocktail in a public
establishment has always been tough. [NL]It will get tougher if
community activists such as Scott Howell and Brian Anderson get their
way: total prohibition. Citing safety, morality and LDS strictures
against alcohol, they lead the movement to ban booze in Draper. Now
they have a victory under their belts, convinced it was their doing
that led to the City Council to deny a liquor permit to a new golf
course restaurant in the middle of the city's largest development.
Howell, an employee at LDS Church-owned Brigham Young University,
and Anderson, an attorney, both are members of the church, which
forbids members from drinking alcohol. The pair are concentrating
their campaign mostly south of 9000 South, where the Utah Department
of Alcoholic Beverage Control has 29 permits issued.

Howell (no relation to the state senator), Anderson and their
followers plan to rid the south end of the valley of every one.
Are 29 establishments too many for these modern Carrie Nations to
take on? No, they say, considering the department has issued licenses
for 532 concerns in the remainder of Salt Lake County. After all,
local governments can veto liquor permits, and Howell says
non-drinking communities are eager and justified to follow up bigtime
on the Draper victory. ``As a bedroom community, Draper should be
totally dry,'' Howell says. ``Its citizens are interested in its not
being a distribution outlet for alcohol.

It's a pioneer community.

We believe alcohol is harmful to the body and the mind and, as such,
we are not interested in having it in our back yard.'' The time is
ripe, Howell says, because more people are making Draper their home,
and their possibly more liberal attitudes must be curbed before it
becomes a force against his temperance campaign. ``They all
brought the values and standards of their old community,'' Howell
says. ``We were caused to look into our souls and say, `What do we
want to be?' ``It's now an opportunity to sit down with the City
Council . . . and worry about what the community wants to define
itself as, as far as values and community standards are concerned.''
Howell's vision is fairly realistic, if the cheers by residents
who jammed the City Council chambers for the golf course vote are any
indication. ``Make Draper a dry city,'' urges Brian Larson.
``Revocations [of existing permits] is possible. . . . But a cowardly
City Council will allow the developers to tell them what ought to be
done.'' Larson pooh-poohs the notion stated by drinkers in Draper
claim that he, Howell, and their supporters trample their personal
freedoms with their tactics. ``We have the freedom to have a city
that is alcohol-free or highly controlled,'' Larson responds.
Councilman Lyn Kimball cast the only vote against denying the golf
course's application. He does not drink alcohol, but he sees a
dangerous precedent, a sort of ``tyranny by the majority.'' ``I am
strong LDS. I served as a bishop,'' Kimball says. ``I know what our
beliefs are and the consequences of irresponsible drinking. And I'm an
advocate of majority rights.'' But . . . ``I'm convinced that
what was done was discriminatory and while . . . Draper may have had a
right to do what it did, I don't believe that the best interests of
Draper City overall was done,'' Kimball says. Discrimination?
Kimball says the golf course operators can point to Guadalahonky's
Mexican Restaurant at 136 E. 12300 South, which 11 years ago received
the city's permission to serve beer, wine and liquor with meals.
Golf course managers are undecided whether to pursue a legal
course claiming unfairness, says Crown Golf Properties attorney
Richard Golden. But Larson and Howell say the Mexican food
establishment, just a few blocks from the city's ``gateway'' near
Interstate 15, is one of their primary targets. ``We've got to
make a stand,'' Howell says. In response, Guadalahonky's owner,
Alan Summerhays, invites the anti-alcohol forces to dine at his
restaurant. ``Some people, after 11 years, still do not know that
we serve alcohol,'' the former Draper planning commissioner likes to
point out. About 2.5 percent of the restaurant's annual gross receipts
come from alcohol sales, he adds. ``Seventy to 80 percent of our
business is families.

They bring their kids. ``People don't come here to drink, they
come here to eat and have an occasional drink or marguerita, with or
without alcohol.'' Families hold LDS missionary farewells there,
Summerhays says, and many of his employees are members of the dominant
faith who return, sometimes for a job, but at least for a meal.
Summerhays is proud that his restaurant is a large contributor to
anti-drug programs in Draper, supporting 11 schools. But Howell
says trends in Utah and nationwide are toward less -- zero, eventually
- -- alcohol.

As he and his neighbors collected 1,637 signatures for a petition
against the golf course application, he says, word reached Sandy and
Riverton residents who clamored to sign. Their signatures were not
needed, but their attitude was heartening, Howell says. Besides
going after existing permits, Howell says he and other activists are
drafting an ordinance that would amount to a pre-emptive strike
against any proposal to serve booze ``so we don't have to go to battle
every time.'' ``Meanwhile, Draper is not the only community in
Utah that is interested in having a dry community,'' says Howell.
To the west in Bluffdale, no liquor or beer is sold because there
are no retail or state outlets. Last year in Sandy, hundreds of
anti-alcohol residents turned out to defeat a ``brew pub'' restaurant
proposal.

South Jordan residents have held a request to start a brew pub at bay
for nearly a year now. Riverton is home of the Lazy Dog Saloon.
Mayor Sandra Lloyd says the tavern is a piece of history, but that
does not make residents happy about it. Nor are they pleased that the
Riverbend Golf Course sells beer. So activists keep a careful watch on
council actions that might place more alcohol in their midst. The
same sort of activity has been happening all over Utah. Northern
Utah's Logan has reduced the number of permits it will issue, and some
cities in Utah County allow no liquor sales.

Tiny Boulder, in south-central Utah, has denied a hotel a permit to
serve alcohol, keeping that town dry. And the St. George City Council
has rejected a proposal to allow stores to sell king-size containers
of beer, worrying the plan would promote drunkeness. Maybe, as
Draper resident Kelly Lance suggests, the strength of anti-alcohol
residents is derived from local church leaders.

LDS officials deny that any such campaign comes from the
pulpit.

Some imbibers, however, say this kind of fervor does not spontaneously
arise. And resident Raeanne Sheffield says with the Winter
Olympics looming and the influx of new residents to the South Valley,
prohibition leaves Draper looking silly. Ray Andrus was a
disinterested party waiting for another council agenda item the night
the golf course hit the wall. He told the crowd he was compelled to
address the issue. ``Sometimes it's the responsibility of
government to protect the minority against the majority,'' Andrus said.

Luciano Colonna, Utah Harm Reduction Coalition
81 O Street
95 Salt Lake City, UT 84103
95 phone: (801) 532-5081
95 fax: (801) 532-5081
lcolonna@xmission.com

Checked-by: derek rea