A ban on alcohol along popular canoeing and rafting rivers in south Mississippi’s Pike County is illegal, the attorney for two outfitting business told the state Supreme Court this week.
Alfred L. Felder of McComb, representing Ronnie Perry of Gator’s Tubing and Wendy Ryals of Dogwood Tube Rental, argued to the Supreme Court that supervisors improperly mixed two state statutes, one concerning drinks with more than 5 percent alcohol and one concerning drinks with less than 5 percent.
“Supervisors have taken upon themselves in an ordinance to ban both alcohol and beer. There simply is no authority for that,” Felder said.
The attorney for Pike County disagreed, and said “rowdy drunks” from Louisiana and other places have been a horrible problem on the rivers. Pike County in 2008 banned the sale and possession of alcohol on heavily used stretches of the Bogue Chitto River and Topisaw Creek.
The county has cited attorney general opinions giving supervisors wide latitude in restricting sale of beer and prohibiting consumption on public property. It also claimed hundreds of alcohol arrests have been made and there have been numerous injuries and several deaths.
“We’ve had hordes and hordes of people from New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Bogalusa and other places who get on Interstate 55 … and 10 miles east of McComb find the Bogue Chitto River,” county attorney Wayne Dowdy told the court.
Dowdy said there have been complaints of public drunkenness, fighting, nudity and underage drinking among floating enthusiasts along the popular waterways.
“We have had a huge number of arrests. We’ve had landowners asking people to leave their sand bars and being assaulted by groups of rowdy drunks,” Dowdy said.
Over the years, he said the county has gone to taxpayer expense to keep the peace by bringing in more deputies and wildlife officers.
Dowdy said state law clearly allows counties to pass ordinances that protect the public health and safety, and that includes ban on beer and alcohol.
Felder said the ban impacts thousands of dollars that are spent by tourists along the river during holiday periods and other times over a 12-13 week peak season.
“If the citizens of Pike County don’t want alcohol out there then let them vote it out,” Felder said.
The ordinance applies to the Bogue Chitto River from Holmesville to the Bogue Chitto Water Park, and Topisaw Creek from Leatherwood Road to the Bogue Chitto River.
Topics Mississippi
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