By Christopher Harris
Commonwealth Journal Mar 5, 2021
Mar 5, 2021
Once upon a time, the only thing wet in the Lake Cumberland area was the lake itself.
Thatâs changing rapidly. Burnside dipped its toe in the water in 2004 and got it âmoistâ; eight years later, Somerset approved full alcohol sales, including package liquor stores and microbreweries. That opened the floodgates. Russell County popped the cork on alcohol sales in 2016; McCreary County raised its glass to legal drinking in 2019; and last year, Wayne County voters poured into polling places to vote in âwetâ status, by a margin of 4,901 votes for, 3,996 against.
âHonestly, I did not think in my lifetime that Wayne County would go wet with our past demographics,â said Wayne County Judge-Executive Mike Anderson at the time.
Burnside Mayor Robert Lawson
Burnside Mayor Robert Lawson has been elected to chair the Lake Cumberland Area Development District (ADD) Board of Directors for 2021.
Lawson has served on the board since he first took office in 2017, since all judge-executives and mayors from the district s 10 counties Adair, Casey, Clinton, Cumberland, Green, McCreary, Pulaski, Russell, Taylor and Wayne are automatically named in addition to 20 citizens that also serve from those counties. It s an honor and a way to serve our 10-county region, Mayor Lawson said of chairing the board. The ADD office does so much for cities and counties helping to find grants and assisting us with the infrastructure needs we have. They play a huge role.