2 groups battling for Cedar Hills votes
With just two weeks left until citizens vote on initiatives that deal with those issues, two citizens groups are trying to sway voters.
"We are interested in helping the people of Cedar Hills understand the importance of having the ordinances passed to preserve our standards," said Tera Duncan, a member of the so-called Coalition to Preserve Cedar Hills.
The coalition of residents was formed in February to urge members of the City Council to pass ordinances banning alcohol sales and mandating Sunday business closures.
The ordinances failed and then were placed on the June 28 ballot, largely due to the coalition's efforts.
Over the next few weeks, the coalition plans to post yard signs and distribute information and postcards outlining major arguments.
Duncan was unsure how much the group plans to spend but estimated that $1,000 has been spent so far, all contributed by community members.
So far, the group has spent around $250 and plans to spend about $250 more before the election.
Eric Richardson, the group's leader, said the group's goal is to get the word out that Cedar Hills will not be harmed by allowing alcohol sales and Sunday business operation.
"We want to get information to citizens so they can take into account the repercussions of prohibition and what that would do to the city's commerce, the prospects for our commercial zone and our tax burden," he said.
The group held a town meeting last Wednesday to educate residents and may hold a second before the election.
The two groups disagree mainly about the effect alcohol and Sunday sales will have on the community.
Duncan said, "We feel that if we don't prohibit alcohol and close businesses on Sunday, it will harm our community. It will bring in more crime, more automobile accidents, more accidental injuries, more damage to property, more problems with our teenagers, because they're a high-risk population, and so we don't want to bring all those problems in."
Richardson said, "Our position basically isn't that we're for alcohol or for Sunday openings, it's that we're for a more reasonable, balanced approach to governing. These ordinances trample on the rights of landowners, of individual citizens who want to have the ability to make decisions, without providing any health or safety benefit. I have yet to meet a young person who said, 'The reason I didn't drink alcohol as a kid is because my city prohibited it.' "
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