Prohibition ended 83 years ago. It’s time for Westhampton – and seven other communities statewide – to join the club.
For the 11th time in the last half-century, though the first in 22 years, residents of the town of 1,600 will have a chance at Saturday’s annual Town Meeting to drop the “dry” label that forbids the sale of alcohol within the community’s boundaries.
It’s unlikely that granting a pouring license to Outlook Farm — allowing owner Brad Morse to sell the wine, cider and beer he makes for consumption inside his business — will open the alcohol spigot in town. This is merely one business that already sells alcoholic beverages as a state licensed farmer-brewer. The pouring permit would simply allow customers to pop the cork at the 136 Main Road farm rather than waiting until they get home.
If a majority of residents approve the articles, the Select Board would petition the state Legislature to authorize the license.
It’s not as if traditional arguments against the sale of alcohol hold sway in Westhampton any longer. There likely won’t be an influx of drunk drivers on the roads or an increase in unseemly behavior that requires police response.
Alcohol is already in the town even though it’s not sold there – check out the bottles along walking trails in the town’s woods – yet unruly behavior is rarely a problem.
Morse said he only wants to serve alcohol at the farm’s monthly Sunday festivals and at special events such as weddings. Becoming a “wet” community by approving this permit would still give town officials the authority to withhold a permit to another business that they deemed unworthy.
Westhampton’s neighboring towns, meantime, are in the process of or have already increased the number of businesses that can sell alcoholic beverages. Easthampton is petitioning the Legislature for eight new licenses above a quota established by state law, a move Northampton has made numerous times over the years. The Easthampton licenses would go to businesses, with preference to establishments in the mill industrial district and the downtown business district.
Officials in these cities, in fact, lobbied the state to give them over-quota licenses, something Gov. Charlie Baker supports.
We see few reasons for Westhampton to continue this antiquated ban. Other larger communities that have gone “wet” in recent years have not seen increased crime. Take Rockport, for example.
The town of 7,000 north of Boston agreed in 2005 to permit the sale of alcohol in restaurants. Ten years later, the Gloucester Times reports that no one had made a complaint about additional crime or alcohol-fueled incidents. Police told the paper that there was “no noticeable difference.”
Traditions die hard. Ten times since prohibition’s repeal in 1933, Westhampton residents have shot down the idea of ditching the no-alcohol sales rule. People’s attitudes toward the sale of alcohol have changed, however. In 2000, for example, 20 communities in Massachusetts were “dry.” Today, eight continue to hold out. In addition to Westhampton, they include Alford, Chilmark, Dunstable, Gosnold, Hawley, Montgomery and Mount Washington.
One longtime opponent considering his position wondered in a Gazette story last week why the town should change the law, given that being dry hasn’t hurt Westhampton. But has it helped? Probably not, and it can be argued that it has hurt the bottom line of businesses that wanted the option of offering a product consumers want.
It’s time for Westhampton to remove itself from this list. If Puritans can embrace alcohol – the Mayflower carried more beer than water – so can Westhampton.