By Betsy Finklea
On Monday of this week, the applications went live on the South Carolina Department of Revenue website for businesses interested in Sunday alcohol sales in the unincorporated areas of Dillon County to apply for their licenses.
On November 5th, the voters of Dillon County voted to allow Sunday alcohol sales with a vote of 5,935 for to 3,918 against*. (*Unofficial totals)
According to Tim Smith, Public Information Officer for the S.C. Department of Revenue, one can follow the instructions below to submit an application on MyDORWAY.
“Existing license holders can upgrade to the 7-day versions of their permits by submitting the first page of the ABL-901, turning in their previous license, and paying applicable fees. It’s not that they can’t upgrade, it’s that they can’t upgrade on MyDORWAY,” explained Smith.
“Also, while the referendums passed on November 5, businesses in the affected jurisdictions couldn’t apply for the new licenses until the SCDOR created the new applications, and those applications went online Monday,” Smith said.
This only affects businesses in the unincorporated areas of the county. The Dillon County Council held three readings of an ordinance to allow the public to vote on whether or not they wanted Sunday Alcohol Sales. At the final reading in August, a majority of the council voted to allow the measure on the ballot. No one appeared for the public hearing to voice support for or against allowing the measure on the ballot. There are still no Sunday alcohol sales allowed within the town limits of Latta or Lake View. Their councils would have to pass an ordinance allowing Sunday Alcohol Sales to appear on the ballot for their individual towns, and the voters in these individual towns would have to pass the ordinance for Sunday Alcohol Sales to be allowed. The City of Dillon voters passed Sunday Alcohol Sales in 2020.
