Gaston County loses money as dry county, commissioner says

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — Gaston County Commissioner Tom Keigher said the county is losing millions of dollars as a dry county, money that would stay there if people here had more options.

"Anything we can do to improve the community, I'm 100 percent for it," resident Les Taylor said.

Taylor lives in a community along New Hope Road just south of Gastonia.

Taylor and many of them said they would support other businesses that sell beer and wine in historically dry Gaston County.

They said it's not about the beer and wine.

"Convenience is what everybody is looking for," Taylor said.

Many of his neighbors go to Lake Wylie to buy groceries, get gas and to buy a meal.

They want those kinds of stores nearby, but those stores won't come unless they can sell alcohol.

"I think it would be highly important because it would save people a lot of miles, plus fighting the traffic," Taylor said.

Keigher said the same thing is happening in most of the communities around the county line.

"We are losing the sales tax on that each and every day, each and every year," Keigher said.

He doesn't have numbers on the amount of money the county is losing, but not far from Taylor's home is a new series of subdivisions under construction.

There will be 800 new homes with no stores nearby in Gaston County, and just a short drive from Lake Wylie.

Keigher said the county can't afford to stay dry.

"I'm sure it will bring seven figures in added revenue to the county in sales tax that our citizens are spending in surrounding counties," Keigher said.

He is working on an ordinance to allow beer and wine sales in all of the unincorporated areas of the county and hopes to present it to commissioners in the next two months.

Taylor wants it passed soon.

Keigher said several years ago, convenience store owners came to commissioners and begged them to change the law.

It was a hot-button topic then.

He believes commissioners are ready to make a change now.

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