LATHAM, Ill. (WAND) - A small village in Central Illinois is voting on changing its dry town status in the 2020 election.
As far as anyone can remember, Latham has been dry. Samantha Hummel, owner of the only restaurant in the town, Korner Café, said it most likely started with prohibition.
”As far as we can find history-wise, there’s nothing that tells us it was ever voted dry. We just assume that when prohibition came through, everything went dry and when it came back it never did here”, Hummel said.
She said for her personally, the vote could really help her business. The pandemic has made it hard to pay the bills and she thinks the sale of alcohol and providing some gambling machines, something that is also on the ballot, would boost sales.
“With COVID coming through, of course everything has been a lot rougher on paying bills ... this would help out definitely, [plus] having a couple poker machines in the back because that is also a question on the ballot," Hummel said.
Latham residents will have two questions on the ballot related to alcohol in the village including a vote on alcohol consumption and alcohol sales.
The mayor of Latham, Ted Allen, said if this passes, it would help bring more money to the community.
Hummel said it might encourage more businesses to make their home in Latham.
“It will bring more businesses to town, possibly a gas station, a grocery store, or something like that. It would be nice to have something in town besides the Korner Café and the bank and the post office," she said.
Residents will vote on Tuesday and Mayor Allen said he has not heard anything negative about the move for alcohol sales. He added he hopes it passes.
