The owner of recently purchased and renamed Robards General Store intends to file an application that would allow voters in the precinct to determine if it’s wet or dry.
The Robards precinct is one of three still left in the county. There had been four, but in 2024 residents of the Niagara precinct made it wet. The other two are South Cairo and North Corydon, while Anthoston is moist.
Joe McGarrh, who bought Suggs General Store in January and renamed it Robards General Store, said plenty of customers have come into the store asking if it will one day sell alcohol.
“The vast majority of people are in favor of having the convenience of buying beer,” McGarrh said.
Currently, a person would need to drive 20 miles to Henderson or 15 miles to Sebree to buy beer, he said.
He said, if the vote passes, he plans to sell package beer and bottles of wine. There are no plans to have a bar or sell draft beer, McGarrh said.
But first McGarrh, also a member of the Henderson County School Board, must do the work to get the local option on the ballot. According to the Henderson County Clerk’s office, the deadline to get on the May 19 primary ballot has passed.
To get on the Nov. 4 general election ballot, McGarrh must gather 25% of the number of people who voted in the previous election in the Robards precinct.
Carrie Smith, the chief elections deputy at the county clerk’s office, said last election there were 721 voters in the precinct, leaving the number of signatures needed at 181. The deadline for the signature list is Aug. 11, Smith said.
Those signatures must also come from people who are registered to vote and live within the boundaries of the Robards precinct, Smith said.
Once the signature list—which also includes legible printed name, address, birth date, and date of signature—are gathered, McGarrh will need to submit the signatures and his petition for a local wet/dry vote to county clerk’s office, and officials there will verify the signatures, Smith said.
Once verified, the information is passed to Henderson County Judge-Executive Brad Schneider, who will draw up an executive order that is signed by him and County Clerk Renesa Abner and filed locally, and also sent to state officials and the ballot vendor, who will put the question on the ballot, Smith said.
McGarrh said he will keep a sheet at the store and is currently recruiting Robards residents to take sheets around town to get signatures.
If residents vote to go wet, it would allow other businesses in the Robards precinct, such as the North South Truck Stop and Rockhouse Pizza, the ability to sell alcohol if they chose to, McGarrh said.
In addition to the convenience for locals wanting to buy a six-pack, McGarrh said as a small general store owner he’ll have to battle against the bigger stores and having an extra revenue stream will help.
Robards General Store is open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. McGarrh said that the store will stay open till 7 p.m. during the summer months.
On a side note, McGarrh said since he’s taking on the store’s ownership, he’s improved food quality—the store serves breakfast biscuits and breakfast pizza and deli sandwiches, burgers and pizza—and has plans for a section of the store to be used to sell locally made goods, so it will have a “farmers market-type feel.” The store will also soon offer ice cream by the scoop or the pint from JB’s Barnyard Ice Cream, a Mt. Vernon, Ind., company, McGarrh said.
