Robertson The Brownsboro Police Department will be forced to increase its budget and patrol city streets on a 24- hour basis if a local-option liquor election in May is successful, Chief Thomas Robertson said.

“It would be a harder strain on me and my men. I would need an officer on 24 hours. Right now, we get off at 3 a.m. We’re gearing up, in case it passes, for new city ordinances.”

Y’s Hometown Foods was expected to file its liquor petition this week after the required 51 signatures were obtained. Beer, wine and liquor would be sold at the store if voters approve the measure.

“I think we’re ready to turn it back in now,” store owner Dusty Wise said. “They’ve got to make sure the signatures are valid and everything like that.”

Texas law mandates the petition must be filed by 62 days before the May 8 election. In this case, Wise must submit his petition to Henderson County elections administrator Denise Hernandez by March 8.

Wise Wise said he filed for a local-option liquor election petition only after several Brownsboro supporters asked him to do so. The community appears to be split on the issue, however, with several writing letters to the editor opposing Wise’s effort and others saying privately they support election.

Wise insists his motivation to petition for the liquor election was based on the city’s sales-tax revenue. According to state figures, that number was $126,000 in 2009.

But Robertson said Brownsboro may be better remaining dry, despite the added revenue alcohol sales would bring the city.

“I’d just as soon not see it come to Brownsboro,” he said. “That’s just my personal preference. I wish I had other ideas to bring to the city, but I’m just a simple policeman.”

Robertson said he and Mayor Ronny Harris have discussed what it might take to add an officer to the Police Department, which has a budget of about $135,000.

“The Police Department’s budget is actually intermingled with the city budget, and the mayor and I have been working on it line-item by line-item to separate it. Adding another officer, and including uniforms and equipment, we’re looking at between another $30,000 to $35,000.”

Robertson and three others are full-time officers. Three reserve officers “work fairly regularly,” he said.

Repeated attempts to reach Harris were unsuccessful.

The chief spent 11 years as a deputy with the Hend erson County Sheriff ’s Office before replac- ing Ron Shields, 65, who died last November. Fighting liver cancer, Shields resigned three months earlier after serving five years as Brownsboro’s chief.

Wise, a Brownsboro Independent School District trustee, has owned Y’s for more than 18 years. He’s also a board member for the Brownsboro Economic Development Corporation.

Local-option liquor petitions have circulated in Bullard, Whitehouse, Troup, and Jacksonville. Elections in Rusk and Winona have already passed.

Texas law allows municipal governing bodies to prohibit the sale of alcohol within 300 feet of a public or private school, church, or child-care center. The restriction may reach 1,000 feet if municipal governing bodies request boards of trustees of school districts to set the regulation.

In Brownsboro, Y’s is within a block of a daycare center and within two blocks of Brownsboro Junior High School.

Forty-two counties in the state were classified as “completely wet” last November, according to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Thirty were classfied as “completely dry.” The others, including Smith and Van Zandt counties, are partially wet.

For more on local-option liquor elections, visit sos.state.tx.us. The Texas ABC’s Web site is tabc. state.tx.us.