Request By:
Larry K. Harrington, Esq.
City Attorney
City of Owensboro
City Hall
Owensboro, Kentucky 42301
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Reid C. James, Assistant Attorney General
This is in response to your request for an opinion of this office regarding the local option election soon to be conducted in a city and a county precinct in your area. You have noted that three commercial liquor establishments presently located in the county precinct have requested that the City of Owensboro annex them, and that annexation proceedings have already begun. You have also noted that these properties will be annexed by final reading on the day prior to the scheduled local option election.
Based on these facts you have asked whether the liquor establishments in question will be affected by the results of the election if annexed by the city as planned.
It is our opinion that the results of the local option election in the county precinct would not affect the status of the liquor operations if annexed before that election. Since the election was properly ordered for that specific precinct, it follows that those areas no longer a part of the precinct would not be permitted to participate in the election or be affected thereby KRS 242.020. The annexed area would simply enter the city as "wet" territory. See