With many of us out tonight to celebrate New Year’s Eve, the Wisconsin Tavern League is again sponsoring “Safe-Ride.”
Tim “Tippy” Tomchek is President of the Manitowoc County Tavern League and local coordinator of the Safe-Ride program. “It’s a free program for our patrons, from any Tavern League member that participates in the program. If you go in there tonight or tomorrow and have one too many and request a safe ride from the bartender, it’s no cost to the patron. We’ll get you a free ride home from one of the four cab companies we have in town.”
Seehafer News asked Tomchek if the program is well-utilized? “Yes, it is. It’s a statewide program. In the state of Wisconsin last year we had over 93,000 rides, in Manitowoc County we had over 3,300 rides. Our cost last year was just under $30,000 for people to get a free ride home.”
It’s interesting to note that the Tavern League puts up a percentage of the funding but it’s also financed by a surcharge through the Department of Transportation. “Anybody that gets a drunk driving ticket, gets $50 added to their fine. That money goes to the Department of Transportation and then they forward that to the Tavern League of Wisconsin to use for the Safe Ride program.”
The owner of Tippy’s Bar & Grill in Two Rivers added it’s essentially “drunken driving offenders trying to prevent further drunk driving.”
