HYDE PARK — Come November, residents of Hyde Park will vote to see if the local Maverick, located at 675 W. Center St., will be allowed to sell beer or not.

City Council members passed an ordinance that allowed the sale of beer by Maverick in October of 2012. Soon afterward, Hyde Park and Cache County residents put a petition together blocking the ordinance to go into effect.

Bryan Earl, who wrote a letter to the editor of The Herald Journal about the petition effort, explained that the petition wasn’t intended to block the sale of beer. It was a larger matter. “A decision like this should be voted on by the members of the community, not just the city council,” he said.

The petition had more than 500 signatures. In order to block the ordinance, Cache County needed to verify that 20 percent of the signatures came from Hyde Park. This was confirmed by the county, and the ordinance was blocked.

In order to pass the ordinance now, it must go to a public vote. This vote could take place as early as June or as scheduled in November.

Hyde Park Mayor Bryan Cox now wonders what direction Hyde Park citizens wish to go in as a city.

“The question we have to ask now is how is Hyde Park going to compete with its sister cities? Are we going to allow business that brings in sales tax revenue from alcohol, or are we going to grow by property taxes?” Cox said. “It’s a hard decision.”

Cox didn’t feel persuaded either way on the ordinance but suggested a way to make his city better. " I think we as a city not taking one side or the other, we can educate our citizens better on what the city ordinance does," said Cox.

Published in cooperation with the Hard News Cafe. Original story is here.