TYLER - Although Smith County will remain a dry county, the city of Tyler if now an exception.

"what I have seen living in East Texas is people who want to drink will drink, and they'll go to great lengths to do it."

However, now it's a little bit easier.

Alcohol is making it's way into Tyler and into the hands of drinkers in a new way. For drinkers, it means getting carded at restaurants just means showing an ID instead of filling out a Unicard for a private club membership.

For Independent restaurant owners, like Daniel Boone, it means saving time and thousands of dollars a year needed to file the membership paperwork.

"it will save a lot of headaches and a lot of money. Make it a lot easier to operate a business."

Owners also say it was a financial burden for local restaurants, not large chains.

Roger Lumley is one of the men behind the change and he says it's a good thing. "everybody was worried about it, but we're not wetting up tyler...we're not gonna have a bar on every corner."

He says it will enhance the city's growth.

Residents say they disagree.

"I think there's other ways to generate revenue...We're growing just fine and have been without any of this."

The votes were cast and the decision made, so now what?

Now on the plates of city leaders is what to do about advertising alcohol. That's because the change will allow public advertising for alcoholic beverages...and you could see alcohol advertised on billboards within the city.

The change could go into affect in a couple of months and when that happens, alcohol delivery trucks will be permitted to deliver alcohol directly to the restaurants, where before they had to go pick it up themselves.