Outdoor adult beverages in St. Marys' future?

ST. MARYS - Downtown St. Marys could have a designated outdoor refreshment area in time for Memorial Day weekend if city council members take emergency action.

Representatives of the St. Marys Area Resource Team, a coalition of local businesses, and St. Marys Chamber of Commerce came before the city's streets and sidewalks committee on Monday to discuss creating the area to spur interest in the downtown.

A designated outdoor refreshment area, or DORA, would allow patrons of participating local restaurants and bars to buy up to two alcoholic drinks that they could consume outside or while shopping within a designated area. Each establishment would have a designated cup or sticker to mark drinks as coming from a DORA facility. Cups would not be able to be reused in a different DORA facility and would need to be thrown away.

In a community the size of St. Marys, up to 150 acres can be designated a DORA. The area proposed by the DORA Committee for SMART is approximately 65.4 acres and includes five alcohol-serving establishments who are reportedly willing to participate: GR8 Vines Winery, C&C Loft and Lounge, Guarnieris Pub and Pizzeria, Friendly Tavern and the St. Marys Eagles. Properties like the Skip Baughman Stadium, the Old Mill and Mill and Memorial parks are also included.

Under the current proposal, the DORA would be in effect from 11 a.m.-10 p.m., with Sunday hours to be decided later on. SMART member Ashley Randolph said the hours were chosen because 11 a.m. is typically about brunch or lunch time and members felt people didn't need to be walking around outside with alcohol after 10 p.m.

Fellow SMART member Laura Yelton pointed out that other local communities have or are considering DORAs, including Wapakoneta and Sidney. The SMART group encourages people to visit downtown St. Marys and saw this as a way to make it a more fun place to be.

"We have some wonderful, amazing things in our downtown, and we at SMART want people to see that, not just drive through," Yelton said.

In conducting their research, SMART members said they spoke with representatives of other cities that have DORAs. The only issue Yelton said she heard was littering.

Yelton said she and other business owners in the area were willing to take responsibility and help keep the area clean as well.

The city would need to monitor the situation and see if more trash receptacles would be needed, or if trash would need to be picked up more frequently than once a week, said city safety and service director Greg Foxhoven.

Foxhoven, Yelton and police chief Jacob Sutton had also reportedly met to discuss patrolling of the area, and how police officers, especially at night, would need to be able to easily identify whether someone was drinking from a DORA cup provided by participating establishments.

Foxhoven said while Sutton and he had some concerns and reservations, they both support the effort, as does mayor Patrick McGowan and city auditor Doug Riesen. While there may be some initial bumps in the road, Foxhoven said the only way to fix them would be to move forward and work them out as they arise up.

Councilman Ken Koverman said he'd been asked by citizens why St. Marys doesn't have a DORA like Wapakoneta. He doesn't want St. Marys to get left behind, he said.

Another matter of importance in establishing the DORA would be educating the public on the rules, which would ultimately be decided upon by council members. The creation of a DORA wouldn't enable people to bring a six pack of beer to Memorial Park and walk around with an open container, Foxhoven said. The drinks would need to come from a DORA establishment.

The city also would need to put up signage marking the boundaries of the DORA. If the city creates a DORA and later finds there are too many issues, the DORA can also reportedly be ended at any time.

Council member Dan Uhlenhake said anything that generates excitement for the downtown is a good idea. It could be the impetus for entrepreneurs who had been thinking of starting a business to take the leap, he said.  

Foxhoven said the DORA could be in place by Memorial Day weekend, if the matter is approved by city council as an emergency ordinance. SMART is holding First Friday events the first Fridays of May, June, July and August, and wanted to have the DORA in place soon.

First Fridays would have downtown retailers open later from 6-8:30 p.m., and SMART has been working on bringing in pop-up shops, craft vendors and food vendors. An outdoor movie may also be held around 9 p.m.

In other business, committee member Jim Christman said street parking on narrow roads around West Spring Street could be a safety issue. Residents have reportedly contacted him describing narrowly avoided collisions, and Christman also observed that because of the narrow street, drivers had to wait for other traffic to pass before doing so themselves.

Parking on only one side of the street could resolve the issue, Christman suggested, but Foxhoven said many times in these situations, residents couldn't agree on which side of the street parking should be available.

Foxhoven said he could pull statistics on the area from the police department to see the number of crashes, violations, speeding issues or other accidents that had been reported. The information might help them better identify the issue and a possible solution, but there might also be nothing the city could do, he said.