Houston alcohol sales expected to help improve city

HOUSTON, Miss. (WCBI) – For the first time in a long time, residents of Houston can buy and sell wine, beer, and liquor.

More alcohol sales means more tax revenue for the city of Houston.

Mayor Stacey Parker said the city hasn’t officially decided on what to do with the new stream of income, but he has a few ideas.

“We haven’t seen this, or, I don’t think since… some of them say prohibition. I don’t know,” said Parker.

Parker said seeing alcohol available in convenient stores and shopping markets in his town is odd.

“The biggest change is they are selling it, which I understand they’re selling a fair amount of it. The tax dollars will be going back into the city,” said Parker.

Save-A-Lot is one of the locations selling beer. Managers there say they’ve been preparing for this moment since it was announced last month, even converting an old office room into a beer cave.

“This was an office space that wasn’t utilized, and they turned it into the cooler. It’s got spray foam insulation behind the fiberglass panels. Then you use a regular room air conditioner with the condenser that drops the temperature… We’ve had a good bit of sales. They started early on the 22nd. I think some people wanted to be the first to say they were the first, but sales have been pretty good,” said Assistant Manager Dean Brown.

Both men agree that the new law allows for the city to utilize the money that was previously being filtered into neighboring towns.

“We have a lot of people that, they’ve had to drive to either Mantee or Okolona, or places like that. We’ve heard that a good bit. Now they don’t have to leave town. The beer sales hopefully will be good revenue for the city,” said Brown.

“It is here. We’re going to embrace the situation. We’re going to police the situation. The main thing is that we’re going to be able to capitalize on the dollars that would be spent outside the city of Houston,” said Parker.

Capitalizing could mean seeing an improvement in city infrastructure.

“I’m going to assume some of it will go toward streets. It may go towards parks. It may be going toward our infrastructure as a whole,” said Parker.

Parker said these things alone could help bring more businesses to the area.

“We’re hoping that it does open the eyes of other investors, whether they live locally or whether they live away from here, to come and invest in our community,” said Parker.

Mayor Parker also said besides area restaurants, no one in the city has applied for a liquor license yet.