Samantha Hernandez

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

The Door County village of Ephraim – the last dry municipality in the state of Wisconsin – is dry no more.

The village of Ephraim has been dry since it was founded in 1853. In January a group of business owners handed in two petitions asking to place two referendum questions dealing with the sale of alcohol on the ballot.The petition for the Class B license asked that businesses be allowed to sell beer for consumption on or off the businesses' premise, and the Class C petition asked that restaurants be allowed to sell wine for consumption at the location where it was sold.

Question one dealing with the Class B license was approved 127 to 98 and the second referendum question dealing with Class C licenses passed 152 to 73.

Under Ephraim's zoning code ordinance 17.16 paragraph 10(a), the sale, manufacturing or distribution of alcohol or fermented malt beverages is prohibited within the village. Those within the village are also prohibited from drinking a "fermented malt beverages or intoxicating liquor" in public.

The referendum almost hit a snag in recent weeks when an Assembly bill, that would have turned the referendum from binding to advisory was set to be signed by Gov. Scott Walker. At the request of state Rep. Joel Kitchens, R-Sturgeon Bay, the bill's authors agreed to hold the bill until after the election.

The two Ephraim business owners, Hugh Mulliken and Fred Bridenhagen, responsible for bringing the petitions forward, said they are happy with the passage of both referendum questions.

Mulliken does not feel the vote will change Ephraim in any way, except now people will be able to have a drink with dinner.

“The feeling of Ephraim will remain exactly the same,” he said.

Bridenhagen is thankful to all the people who voted yes.

“I don’t look at this as changing traditions so much as changing history,” he said.

The Ephraim Village Board will now move forward working on a process of issuing alcohol licensees.

"The village citizens have voiced their desires to have referendum B beer passed and referendum C wine in restaurants passed,” said Ephraim Village President Michael McCutcheon. “The board will take this up over the next two months or so and we’ll fashion the appropriate ordinances and then we’ll be ready to issue licences to those who apply for them.”

The board plans to invite the Department of Revenue Alcohol and Tobacco division to Ephraim for a village wide seminar about what the statute changes mean for everyone.



“It is an end of an era," McCutcheon said. "I will say the margins of the victory for both of the referendums, I think, were quite large."

- svhernande@doorcountyadvocate.com, @svhernandez on Twitter or 920-743-3321, ext. 112.

