Carmike alcohol bill goes to governor

NASHVILLE — A bill allowing wine and liquor sales in downtown Chattanooga’s recently opened Carmike Majestic 12 theater is on its way to Gov. Phil Bredesen for his consideration.

The House approved Senate Bill 2731 on a 71-23 vote. Senators passed the bill last month.

House sponsor Rep. Tommie Brown, D-Chattanooga, whose district includes downtown, called Carmike officials “good corporate citizens” who have joined “all of us in Hamilton in our renaissance, the renewal of Chattanooga.”

Carmike is seeking to sell wine in its Ovation Club, an adult-only VIP auditorium that serves treats such as crab cakes. The Ovation Club already sells beer. But in order to sell wine, a change to state liquor laws was required.

Representatives and senators returned to Nashville on Monday for another week of business. In other action Monday night:

* House members voted 96-0 for a resolution urging the U.S. Department of Transportation “to take all necessary measures to facilitate the establishment and construction of Corridor K.”

Rep. Eric Watson, R-Cleveland, the sponsor of House Joint Resolution 754, described how November rock slides along U.S. 64 in the Ocoee River Gore “completely blocked a major east/west corridor in Southeast Tennessee” and have since “placed a great hardship on the people of Polk County.”

Rep. Watson noted that in 1965, Corridor K was one of 27 corridors throughout Appalachia that was supposed to be built, with the federal government paying for 80 percent of the road’s construction cost. But the corridor never was completed. Now, Southeast Tennessee lawmakers are hoping the rock slides will at least provide momentum to a project intended to connect East Tennessee to the East Coast. It has a price tag estimated at from $500 million to $1 billion.

Rep. Watson was joined during the vote by most Southeast Tennessee legislators as well as many Polk County officials including the county’s mayor, Mike Stinnett, and Ducktown, Tenn., Mayor James Talley.