Subject: Tell-E-Flash: Liquor Store coming to Tellico Village

The village has been asking for years to have a liquor store in Tellico Village. Several surveys have been conducted in the past asking Villagers what specific businesses they would like added to the community. One request that continues to arise in these surveys is the addition of a liquor store.

The current law states that a liquor store can only be licensed in an incorporated community and Tellico Village is not an incorporated community. However, an opportunity recently presented itself for the POA to work with local and state-level officials who sponsored an amendment to legislation that would allow the POA to own and operate a liquor store. The legislation was passed this week and will become law when signed. We will be evaluating the operational aspects of the project over the next couple of months.

There are two key benefits in adding a liquor store to Tellico Village. First, it will bring a service to our property owners who have repeatedly asked for it. Second, it will serve as income revenue for Tellico Village and will help offset some of the community’s infrastructure costs (ex: maintaining roads). The location of the liquor store has not been decided, nor has an opening date been decided.

Both Bruce Johnson, our Board President, and Winston Blazer, our General Manager, feel that this is an exciting opportunity for the community and a win for the County as well. They see this as an example of how the Village can work with State and local governing officials on mutually benefiting projects.

As the project progresses, the POA will keep the public updated.

Thank You

Beth Kuberka

The more I watch our state government, the more I realize just how sorry so many of them are. The state legislature upended a hundred years of law to make it possible for Tellico Village to have liquor stores. And in time, every subdivision like the village will have their own liquor stores. This would be the first liquor store in the state that is not within a city.

The city of Loudon, with it's two liquor stores, stands to be the biggest loser given that much of their customer base is from the village.

While it bothers me that we're going to have more liquor outlets rather than less, and that Loudon's tax base and liquor stores will suffer, that's not my biggest problem with this slimy little deal.

My issue here is the backroom secret operation this has been. No state officials, no POA officials spoke to any Loudon County or Loudon officials. We knew nothing till it was a done deal and that's just wrong.

Why is it none of the state officials who were pushing this through represent Tellico Village or Loudon? Who wrote the bill, who took it to legislators. Why is it 32nd District, State Representative Kent Calfee, on Monday, stood on the floor of the house and strongly opposed the bill but by Thursday night he was on the house floor pushing for passage of the bill? Why is it state senator, Randy McNally, was so insistent on passing this bill that he would be willing to kill two other bills if this one didn't pass? Very curious if you ask me but everyone in Nashville knows how wealthy and powerful the liquor lobby is. You figure it out.

I am calling on the county mayor to send a letter ASAP to both McNally and Calfee to be present at our next commission meeting on May 7th, to answer these questions and many more. Something stinks to high heaven here.