The Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors is considering developing a resolution to ask the State Tax Commission to revoke the Highland Plantation’s resort status. If approved, Cowbell’s sports bar will have to stop selling alcohol because Oktibbeha is a dry county.
Oktibbeha County Sheriff Dolph Bryan made the plea to the Board of Supervisors at the Monday board meeting. He said calls to sheriff’s department from the Highlands have increased recently, with 198 calls in the last 12-month period.
“The road gets blocked, and that’s the real problem for ambulances and fire trucks getting past Cowbell’s,” Bryan said. “If we had a need for one on the other side, we couldn’t get the emergency vehicles through there.”
Bryan said many of the calls are from people who live in the Highlands who are trying to get back to their homes after being out.
“They have to call us to come in,” he said. “We have to go in Cowbell’s and find out who owns the car and get it moved or have a wrecker tow it away.”
Board of Supervisors President John Young said the sheriff’s points are valid.
“I guess it’s in the hands of the Board of Supervisors right now to decide if that’s what we’re going to do or how we’re going to proceed from there,” he said. “We will have discussions among ourselves individually to see where we stand and find some more information.”
He said the board may be able to make a decision at its next meeting.
District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer said if the board approves the resolution, the decision will be left up to the state tax commission.
“We do have some influence because we have home rule as it relates to the jurisdiction of the county,” he said. “As far as the final decision, it does not rest with us.”
He said citizens should call the supervisor of their district if they want to give any input.
“I’ve had several people call me, some saying that we need to go ahead and revoke it and some saying we need to look at the other end of it,” Trainer said.
Bryan said revoking the resort status would be best for the Starkville and MSU communities.
“I think it would have a tremendously good affect to maybe sober some of it up and not have nearly as many calls out there, and I certainly wouldn’t have the problem with the road being blocked,” he said. “Because Cowbell’s stays open to 3 [a.m.] and the other beer joints in town shut down at [midnight] on normal nights … all the drunks end up going to Cowbell’s when they leave the beer joints in town.”
Trainer said he would like for the board to look at some proactive steps rather than completely stopping Cowbell’s from selling beer.
“It would probably be difficult for it to be a sports bar without any alcohol, but at the same time, if the board decides that, then of course they’ll have to live with the board’s decision and the state commission decides to revoke it, then of course it’s out of my hands,” he said. ”
Trainer said he hopes the board can find a positive outcome.
“I understand the sheriff’s position that he’s trying to serve and protect,” he said. “They’ve had some calls out there, some alcohol related and some not, but a lot of it is basically because you’ve got a lot of young people out there.”
Bryan said he does not think Cowbell’s would be forced to shut down if it was prevented from selling alcohol.
“They still have a tremendously fine restaurant there from what I’ve been told by people who have eaten there,” he said. “I hope that they would be in business for a long time and serve the county citizens and visitors good food for a long, long time.”
Senior industrial and systems engineering major Jenny Johnson said she does not think the status protecting Cowbell’s should be revoked.
“The bar hasn’t been open even a year, [and] I think it shows the board is irresponsible [if it revokes] a decision based on only six to eight months of business,” she said.