ASHLAND — Ashland City Council is considering the implementation of a designated outdoor refreshment area, also referred to a DORA.
Mayor Matt Miller presented an 11-page application for the DORA during Tuesday’s council meeting.
DORAs allow people age 21 and above to purchase alcoholic drinks in a designated cup from permitted establishments. The patron would then be allowed to carry the beverages within a defined downtown area.
The idea is meant to spur economic activity in a downtown area. Some cities — Wooster, Bucyrus, Mount Vernon and Norwalk, to name four — have created them in recent years.
“We already have a wonderful thing going on in our downtown and on our Main Street, and we don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that,” Miller said. “But we are getting more and more requests for the DORA.”
Some residents brought up the desire for a DORA in downtown Ashland during an October 2021 “Talk the Vote” event, but the idea was brought up as early as March 2021.
The mayor has hinted for weeks that he would present an outlined plan in the form of an official application. He said he has been consulting with Ashland police chief Dave Lay and looking into the particulars before putting anything official out.
One of those particulars? Event organizers would need to apply for a DORA approval and possibly pay a fee, according to the application.
“Each event will be thoroughly reviewed by the city of Ashland before approval … Event organizers may be required to pay for overtime for public services/safety workers or for special duty officers to guarantee appropriate public health and safety requirements,” reads the application.
The mayor said events such as St. Patrick’s Day, Music on Main or the annual car show would be examples of events that the DORA would be enacted.
The Christmas parade, Miller said, would not be an event where a DORA would be in effect. On those approved events, the DORA’s hours of operation would be 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
“We know that we have some wonderful family-friendly events — and that (the Christmas parade) is probably one of the premier,” he said.
The application outlines the DORA’s boundary. According to a map, the DORA would include Main Street from Corner Park to the east all the way down to Joan’s Tavern to the west.
It would include businesses on the north and south side of Main Street, as well as the city’s parking lot along East Second Street and businesses along South Street. The new “Ashland” theater would also be included within the boundary.
In all, the DORA would envelop 22 acres of downtown space and DORA decals would be placed at boundaries to distinguish a barrier.
The application also lists “qualified permit holders.” They include:
• A-Town Tap
• Amvets Post 0096
• Bullshooters
• Joan’s Tavern
• Linder’s Sports Bar & Grill
• Ohio Fire
• Riley’s Night Club
• The South Street Grille
• Uniontown Brewing Company
• VFW Post 1067
• SPOKE LLC (Wagon Wheel)
The mayor said the qualified permit holders, if they choose, would sell designated one-use cups between 25 cents and $5. The proceeds from the sale of those cups would then benefit Ashland Main Street, according to the application.
Sandra Tunnell, executive director of Ashland Main Street, has been a proponent of the idea for a few years — though she would prefer the DORA be a perpetual privilege with some black-out dates, what she called a more “traditional” DORA versus the proposed event-based DORA.
“I’m worried that an event-based DORA would be onerous to the people actually serving the drinks,” she said, adding some servers and patrons might not be aware of when a DORA-designated event is happening.
“It could cause confusion. And the people who are going to get the brunt of that are the people in the food industry,” Tunnell said.
Nevertheless, Tunnell is glad the city is considering it as a real option.
“I’m excited to see it happen. DORAs have made downtown events and the downtown atmosphere better. And of all the cities I’ve talked to, no one really abuses it,” she said.
State law requires councils to make the DORA application accessible for review for 30-60 days and to advertise the city’s intention to consider it as an option.
Council then must act after the 30-60 day window. Should council approve it, the DORA application would head to the Ohio Liquor Control Commission, Tunnell said.
