Hedley alcohol election delayed

A petition to hold a local option election in Hedley is valid, but voting to legalize the sale of alcoholic beverages in that city won’t happen until May.

Donley County Commissioners reviewed the petition containing 82 signatures during their regular session Monday afternoon and found it to be legal and in the proper format, but county officials say petition backers did not get it filed soon enough with the county clerk’s office to be placed on the November ballot.

“A petition like this has to be in my office for 30 days, and then [the commissioners] have to vote on it prior to the 71st day before an election,” County Clerk Fay Vargas told the Enterprise.

But that doesn’t mean there was anything wrong with the petition itself, Vargas said. And with a new law in place as of September 1, petition backers can now take their quest directly to the City of Hedley, where the Board of Aldermen will order the issue be placed on the May ballot.

“The city will now have to bear the cost of having that election instead of the county,” Vargas said.

Petitioner Tonja Ruthardt was not unsettled by the news, telling the Enterprise Tuesday morning that she wanted the election to be held in May anyway.

“Everything is good,” she said.

At press time, Ruthhard did not know when she would present the petition to the city.