One month after defeating a proposed Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA) ordinance on first reading, the Greencastle City Council reversed field and passed a revised ordinance on first reading at its December meeting.
The original ordinance was turned back on a 4-2 vote with only Vince Aguirre and Katherine Asbell, the two councilors who co-chaired a committee looking into the DORA idea, voting in favor of it. David Masten, Mark Hammer, Stacie Langdon and Darrel Thomas voted against in the absence of Councilor Tina Nicholson during November.
Thursday night, Masten and Hammer reversed their votes and Nicholson also voted in favor as first reading of the new measure passed 5-2 with Langdon and Thomas maintaining their opposition. The ordinance is likely due for second and final reading at the January City Council meeting.
The revised ordinance, City Attorney Laurie Hardwick explained, has two notable changes — removal of the fourth district zone north on Jackson Street from the courthouse square toward Putnam Inn (which did not apply for DORA consideration) and a reduction in duration to just Thursday through Saturday (eliminating Sunday when most bars are closed anyway).
That was enough for him to change his mind, Councilman Hammer said.
Owners of three restaurants/bars spoke at the nearly two-hour meeting, while two additional downtown businesses, The Bodega, owned by Joel and Tosh Everson, and Brit’s Blooming Boutique, owned by Brit Overshiner, were represented at the podium.
Councilman Aguirre said Myers’ Market has expressed interest in people coming into their business with DORA cups of alcohol, while nearby Taco Wapo has not submitted an application to take part.
Under the DORA ordinance, anyone 21 years and older can buy alcoholic beverages (maximum of two) from approved vendors and retail establishments and then carry them outside to be consumed within the designated district. As proposed, DORA is to be in effect 52 weeks a year from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.
Latest reports are that 27 Indiana communities have adopted some sort of DORA measure allowed under Indiana code, including Muncie, which has acted since Greencastle first defeated the idea in November. Other sites include Jasper, Noblesville, Logansport, Speedway and Shelbyville.
Alex Eaker, who co-owns Lost Hollow with Mayor Lynda Dunbar’s son Elliott, was the first business person to speak to the Council, noting that DORA is going to allow downtown bars to operate more legally than might technically be the case currently on First Fridays.
“DORA actually puts perimeters around drinking,” Eaker said, noting it protects the people who are doing it and the businesses as well.
“This already happens in Greencastle where people are walking out with alcohol,” Eaker added. “We try to skirt around legalities sometimes, but this will allow us to be protected. In addition, it will help us grow in this town and will bolster the legitimacy of events in Greencastle. If it doesn’t work, you can dissolve this at any time.”
Calling DORA a “pro-business movement,“ Elliott Dunbar said it is important for First Friday and related events for which bars and restaurants that participate currently have to obtain and one-day liquor license.
“Yes, there are certain benefits like carrying alcohol down the street, which you can do already, but I am looking at this like a business owner and the safety for our liquor license,” Dunbar said.
Suggesting business owners “want Greencastle to be known as an event city,” Dunbar added that “anytime we have a First Friday where we have people come and enjoy music, enjoy food, support our businesses and they may want to enjoy a refreshment. And yes, they leave the front door sometimes. We can’t stop that every time and we can’t have people standing at every barrier saying, ‘Hey this is not the liquor license area where you bought that beer from, you’re in a new liquor license zone and you need to dump that out.’ The DORA provides safety for restaurant and bar owners.”
Moore’s Bar owner Pete Meyer agreed, calling DORA “a best-case scenario for everyone.”
“This actually controls downtown Greencastle,” Meyer said. “If you want to control it, we have to control, by ourselves, glass going out the door onto the street, we have to control cups going out the door. But, technically, unless they are falling-down drunk, they can walk down the street with their glass in hand right now. All I am saying is this controls what Greencastle does, and I am all for it, completely. It is very simple. We, as a city, with this DORA have control where people are walking outside with alcohol. If you don’t do this, we don’t (have control) until you change the law in downtown Greencastle.”
Reminding the Council that DORA was introduced last month “on behalf of all local small businesses in downtown Greencastle that have been struggling,” Joel Everson, who owns both The Whisk and The Bodega, added, ”We are not talking about people drinking more beer or less beer or becoming bigger bourbon fans. We are talking about our small businesses in a historic downtown.
“We are talking about Moore’s, which has been here for 75 years, and I want to see it be here for another 150 years. Shame on us, if on our watch, we do not do everything we can to encourage our small businesses to stay intact,” Everson suggested. “It is the future of our town that matters, and we have an obligation to that.”
Councilman Masten pointed out potential issues such as individuals taking alcoholic beverages out and about and that he would like to see the matter re-evaluated after a year, as well as an assessment of whether it was successful.
Meyer suggested an assessment of events at DePauw University is needed as well.
“A lot of the people that come through downtown on different times of the year, not necessarily First Friday, are DePauw alums.,” Meyer pointed out. “They are here multiple times a year and they are walking from Bridges to Moore’s to The Whisk to Lost Hollow to Almost Home and going back and forth. That’s a fact. They do it all the time.
“I think that it is important that this becomes a major step for Greencastle,” he added. “It controls the downtown drinking, and controls what is on the street and it supports those businesses young and old. We are all for it. I am for all the businesses, but we need to give them an opportunity to expand, and this is it.”
Masten, addressing what negatives he might be concerned about, said someone in a crowd invariably creates issues.
“I guess if people are committing crimes and they go to jail,” Eaker said. “That is going to happen with the DORA or not.”
When you get lots of people together drinking, the problem is often exacerbated, Masten noted.
However, Meyer pointed out that over the last four years not one issue — physical or otherwise — has occurred at First Friday gatherings.
“We do not allow that to take place,” he said. “What I am saying is this is a major step forward for Greencastle to control alcohol on the street, to control glass on the street and communicate across the board that we are all for it. This is a no-brainer.”
“All the businesses are together on this,” Elliott Dunbar added.
Enacting DORA, Councilor Asbell predicted, “can do nothing but benefit our community. It brings people downtown and brings people to the community.”
Aguirre, who first suggested looking into DORA last July, hopes the measure can strengthen local businesses to the point where it helps make Greencastle become a place in which his three-year-old son “will want to stay when he’s old enough to leave.”
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