The mayor of Manitowoc is hoping a new program will help people to stay downtown.
Last month, the city approved the creation of a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area, also known as DORA.
It will allow licensed establishments to serve alcoholic beverages in an approved container that enables the patron to leave with an open container.
The person can then walk around the designated area with the beverage but can’t enter another business with it.
Mayor Justin Nickels tells Seehafernews.com that some visitors only go to one business downtown and then leave.
The DORA is designed to encourage visitors to go to other businesses, which can mean allowing them to take a beverage with them.
Nickels says this isn’t intended to promote heavy drinking.
“There are very specific limitations,” he noted, “Businesses are required to register with the city. There are very specific cups that the drinks need to be in.”
He also noted, “It’s not going through bar closed. It’s going through when most larger activities end during the summer months at these establishments.
The DORA wasn’t approved unanimously by the city council as one alderman expressed concern with the police department having questions about it.
We reached out to Police Chief Nick Reimer to ask about the questions, and he told us that the way the ordinance is written mostly solved the concerns.
He explained, “ending at no later than 9:00 p.m. is a good thing, and we would not support it much later than that. There is wording that we can look at the DORA at some point and decide if there have been any issues so it can be addressed if there are issues.”
Reimer also says the department wants to make sure that there isn’t an increase in underage drinking, OWI, or open intoxicants in motor vehicles.
The DORA is located north of Washington Street, between South 10th and South 7th Streets, and south of Chicago Street, between North 7th and North 11th Streets.
