CENTRE — A lawyer for the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC) said Centre officials will soon be making the same decisions as dozens of other municipalities in Alabama. A law on the books since 2009 allows towns in the state with at least a thousand residents to decide the wet-dry issue at the ballot box — and many municipalities across the state already have.

Almost 55 percent of Centre voters approved the conversion to wet on Nov. 2. The final vote count, including provisional ballots, was 613-503.

According to ABC attorney Bob Martin, officials here will have to begin work on an ordinance fairly quickly, in order to make sure the proper laws are in place as soon as possible.

“Once the city clerk calls us to certify that the citizens have voted to go wet, the laws in otherwise dry Cherokee County that relate to alcohol will no longer apply,” Martin said.

Even though the clock in Centre has officially started ticking, Martin cautioned against rushing into an ordinance that does not fit the size and needs of the community.

“We've gone to lots of towns to help them draft an ordinance, and help them get up and running,” Martin said. “The first priority is drafting an ordinance; second is establishing a protocol for evaluating who qualifies to apply for a license to sell alcohol.”

Martin said it is important for Centre officials to use common sense and apply “reasonable requirements” to its alcohol ordinance, lest the city's attorney end up in court defending illegal obstacles.

“Cities that don't do that will wind up being sued and they will lose,” Martin said. “They won't want to immediately start wasting revenue fighting lawsuits.”

As an example, Martin said cities in Alabama have attempted to deny applications for lounge permits, a violation of state law.

“Lots of cities wanted to make sure there were no bars, no honky-tonks, so they would come up with a scheme to not issue that type of license,” Martin said. “But the courts have ruled that any city that adopts Title 28-3A of the Alabama Code has to accept all of Title 28-3A.”

Title 28, Chapter 3A of the state Code is titled “Alcohol Beverage Licensing Code.” Specifically, Chapter 3A-11 spells out the licensing and ABC Board approval process for a lounge in any “county or municipality where the sale of alcohol is permitted,” and where patrons may then purchase “retail liquor and wine, dispensed from containers of any size, and beer, including draft or keg beer.”

A review by The Post of alcohol ordinances from towns in the state — Cedar Bluff, Collinsville, and the west-central Alabama town of Guin — reveals several variations.

Regarding distance from churches and schools, for example, the Collinsville ordinance allows businesses to sell alcohol within 100 feet, as measured from main entrance to main entrance. Cedar Bluff and Guin extend the allowable line of proximity to 200 feet.

All three ordinances are similar regarding requirements for a Class I Restaurant to sell alcohol, including that the establishment be at least 1,000 sq. ft. in size and serve at least two meals per day at least five days a week.

Another difference regarding restaurants in the three towns is what percentage of income must be derived from food sales. In Guin, meals must comprise at least 60 percent of total gross receipts during any 90-day period; in Cedar Bluff, the number is 50 percent; in Collinsville, the requirement is only 30 percent.

Martin said the number typically fluctuates from town to town because of the difference in the types of eating establishments in municipalities of varying populations.

“We don't have a number in the state Code because we have to cover the entire state,” Martin said. “That creates a problem for our staff sometimes, but we would rather leave it to the people in the particular city to determine the right percentage of alcohol versus food.”

Collinsville and Guin prohibit any outdoor advertising at businesses where alcohol is sold. Also, both towns only allow in-store advertising on the “rear-most wall” which must remain unseen from outside the building. Cedar Bluff's ordinance does not address indoor or outdoor advertising.

All the ordinances establish similar procedures for license application and approval, public notice, reporting of income, and license fees. In Cedar Bluff, applications cost $100. In Collinsville, applicants must pay $200. The charge in Guin is $300.

All three ordinances contain pages of specifics for violations such as sale of alcohol to minors, minors attempting to purchase alcohol, and public intoxication.

Decency issues, such as those expressed publicly by the anti-alcohol group Concerned Citizens of Cherokee County in the weeks before the Centre election, are addressed at length in all three ordinances.

Topless or bottomless waitresses, waiters, dancers, servers, and an extensive range of “sexual acts prohibited by law,” such as prostitution, are defined and expressly deemed illegal in Cedar Bluff, Collinsville and Guin.

Last week, after certifying the results of the wet-dry referendum, Mayor Tony Wilkie told The Post he expects the City Council to begin working on its new alcohol ordinance during the Nov. 29 meeting.