1 more week, and you can buy liquor on Sundays

A drought that's lasted threequarters of a century in Colorado ends July 6.

The Prohibition-era ban on Sunday liquor sales was eliminated by the Legislature this year after decades of chipping away at opponents' resistance. The "curious coalition of Baptists and bootleggers" - the alliance between religious conservatives who opposed Sunday liquor sales on moral grounds and liquor-store owners who backed the ban because they wanted a day off - got tired of fighting for it.

Liquor-store owners could make more money being open seven days a week - the Legislative Council has estimated the state will make $6 million more in tax revenues because of the extra day - but mom-and-pop store owners don't know exactly how much will trickle down to them, even as they add employees for the extended work week.

Kit Abrams, general manager of the Queen Liquor store that her family has owned in Colorado Springs for a quarter-century, hired two more sales clerks and will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays. But she has no idea if her regular customers will show up Sundays.

"It's a leap of faith," Abrams said. "We could all be sitting here Sunday dusting. . . . I think it's going to be a year or two before we know the effects."

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Cheri Jahn, D-Wheat Ridge, said it may not be the most significant law passed by the Legislature this year, but it's the most popular.

No one asks about Jahn's bill that requires courts to grant new trials when DNA evidence is destroyed, but she gets stopped constantly in grocery stores by people wanting to talk about Sunday liquor sales.

Even those who opposed the measure, such as Republican Sen. Dave Schulthe is of Colorado Springs, say they've been surprised by the lack of outcry.

The bigger fight, several legislators said, could come next convenienceand grocery-store owners are likely to ask to sell fullstrength beer on Sundays, something they fought for but didn't get this year. With those stores confined to selling lower-alcohol beer, Colorado Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association Executive Director Mark Larson has asked owners to keep track of how much their Sunday beer sales drop off after Sunday.

Austin Sherwood, general manager of Coaltrain Wine and Liquor in Colorado Springs, has increased staff and extended its July Fourth sales through Sunday and likes the studies it's heard about how overall sales in other states go up when a seventh day is added.

"I'm anticipating we'll have some people in here, definitely, just based on the comments we've gotten. A lot of people are excited about it," he said. "The bottom line is: It's wait-and-see."