Sunday booze OK at Speedway, but not at winery

Tricia Houston of Gallatin County -- home of the Kentucky Speedway -- is among a number of Northern Kentucky entrepreneurs pursuing the idea of growing grapes and making wine. While the idea of Kentucky wine might sound funny to some, you don't have to squint to see parts of Northern Kentucky that look a lot like Northern California. And state officials think grape-growing can be a logical alternative in many locations to a product with no redeeming social value -- tobacco.

Unfortunately for Houston's Cat's Meow Vineyard, Gallatin County officials appear poised to reverse a ruling to allow Sunday alcohol sales -- a move that Houston says could cost her 35 percent of her business based on the weekend business that most wineries do. Instead, she'll try alternative crops to make up the difference.

Maybe that's OK. If it's true that most residents of Gallatin County really don't want Sunday sales, officials can say they're responding to the will of the people.

But it doesn't seem fair to me. Houston doesn't have the clout to get what the state legislature gave Warsaw and the Speedway: a special exemption to sell alcohol on race days. A wild guess is that there is more potential danger on Gallatin County's roads from selling beer to 50,000 race fans than from a few wine buffs showing up at a vineyard on any given Sunday.

And Gallatin County residents can't have it both ways. Don't wish for economic development and a healthier tax base if you send a signal that the county isn't a friendly place for entrepreneurs to take risks with reasonable ideas.

UPDATE: County magistrates on Thursday night voted 3-1 to repeal their 2-year-old measure allowing Sunday alcohol sales. Houston is quoted in an Associated Press story as saying, "I'm absolutely astonished that I could be sitting there and listening to people's personal religious preferences as an indicator of the county's ability to move forward."