By Christopher Harris
Commonwealth Journal Mar 5, 2021
Mar 5, 2021
Once upon a time, the only thing wet in the Lake Cumberland area was the lake itself.
Thatâs changing rapidly. Burnside dipped its toe in the water in 2004 and got it âmoistâ; eight years later, Somerset approved full alcohol sales, including package liquor stores and microbreweries. That opened the floodgates. Russell County popped the cork on alcohol sales in 2016; McCreary County raised its glass to legal drinking in 2019; and last year, Wayne County voters poured into polling places to vote in âwetâ status, by a margin of 4,901 votes for, 3,996 against.
âHonestly, I did not think in my lifetime that Wayne County would go wet with our past demographics,â said Wayne County Judge-Executive Mike Anderson at the time.