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store.” he told the supervisors.
Mixing a harangue against the ABC system with a diatribe directed at the supervisors, Robert Eastham led the opposition.
He railed against changing Rappahannock’s “long standing public policy” on the distribution of hard liquor just to suit “the personal gain of one citizen.” He attacked the state’s monopoly on the sale of liquor as “riddled by hypocrisy, contradiction and a massive guilt complex.”
Citing the Virginia Constitution’s evocation of “firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue,” Mr. Eastham called for liquor sales to be turned over to the private sector so that market demand would initiate proposals for additional outlets.
He told the supervisors that he has been swamped with supporting telephone calls since his letter opposing an ABC store appeared in last week’s Rappahannock News. To those “two or three” people who favor a local outlet for the “flimsy excuse” of convenience, he noted that they must drive to Culpeper, Warrenton, Luray and Front Royal - all towns with ABC stores - for other shopping and can buy liquor on the same trip.
Mr. Eastham maintained that opening an outlet here will have only “negative aspects” since the county will receive “not a penny more in tax money.”
Young people will have greater access to alcohol, he charged, predicting an increase in episodes similar to what happened while he was a member of the School Board when, he said, a young woman drank most of a bottle of alcohol in school and passed out on the classroom floor. “They had to pump her stomach to save her life,” Mr. Eastham told the supervisors.
Although an ABC store in Flint Hill will bring no additional revenue to the county, it will bring additional costs for schools, welfare programs, law enforcement and the judicial system, Mr. Eastham insisted.
These expenses will happen at a time when “the Board of Supervisors has totally lost control of the county’s financial affairs,” he continued, switching targets.' Rappahannock’s supervisors will not stand up to those who demand, but can’t justify, additional spending, Mr.
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