City may consider outdoor area for 2025 First Fridays

In the aftermath of securing the $19 million Stellar Grant that helped revitalize Greencastle’s downtown, city officials looked to other locations for ideas on how to expand business opportunities.

One of those pointed to an increase in specialty restaurants by allowing additional alcoholic beverage permits in the designated downtown area.

Then-Mayor Sue Murray discovered legislation written for the city of Valparaiso that allowed the issuance of 10 new permits to sell alcoholic beverages in an historic area that included a unique downtown make-up of a courthouse, opera house and jail.

Valpo got that approved by the Indiana State Legislature likely because the legislature didn’t think there would be anybody else ever qualify for it, city officials said at the time. However, all those elements area also part of downtown Greencastle.

The unique qualities of the district, which still has available Greencastle ABC permits, has resulted in Lost Hollow (previously Wasser Brewing), Bridges Craft Pizza and Wine Bar, Taphouse Burgers (formerly Taphouse 24) and others developing.

Now the city could be poised to take the proposition one step beyond, following in the footsteps of cities like Jasper, Batesville, Noblesville and Logansport in creating a designated outdoor refreshment area (DORA) that would allow customers to carry specified containers of alcohol from business to business throughout a designated area like the downtown. Other notable DORA locations in Indiana include Speedway, Shelbyville and Warsaw.

Fourth Ward Councilman Vincent Aguirre initiated the idea at the July Council meeting, calling for a committee to study the possibility of creating a Greencastle DORA district.

“I think it’s a fantastic idea,” Councilor Katherine Asbell responded during brief discussion amidst the Council reports portion of the agenda. Asbell noted that she has had discussions with a local attorney about the possibility of the development in the downtown.

“There is a trend happening in a lot of cities and that is a Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area,” Aguirre, said in suggesting the notion that did not result in any official action at present.

Mayor Lynda Dunbar also seemed to be on board, saying there were already plans to look into the possibility of creating a DORA district before the First Friday schedule begins in 2025.

Aguirre, seeing the DORA area as broader than First Friday has been, said he wanted to get the conversation started.

City Attorney Laurie Hardwick noted that she recently attended a conference in Plainfield where the issue was discussed and noted the interest in the activity.

“The schedule, the footprint and all of that needs to be decided,” she added.

Aguirre noted that alcohol sales and the mingling it has helped create on the square during First Fridays has translated into boosted attendance. While a number of downtown businesses and restaurants have already expressed support for the DORA idea, although the councilman admitted that he only knows enough about the specifics of the law “to be dangerous.”

While introducing alcohol into Robe-Ann Park during Parkfest concerts was seen as creating similar interest when approved by the Park Board last spring, the matter was never brought before the City Council for a vote that would have allowed it, and consequently that idea died.

Meanwhile, the Council reports and mayor’s report section of the meeting produced some other interesting notes at the July meeting.

For example, Mayor Dunbar noted the success of the Celebrate 4 events and fireworks at Big Walnut Sports Park, admitting she was “shocked” at the attendance there, and said that in coming months the Park Board will be discussing the possibility of holding the Fourth of July celebration permanently at Big Walnut.

Dunbar also told the Council that the move to the sports park was necessitated by construction at Robe-Ann Park not being completed by the July 1 deadline in the contract with Frank C. Feutz Construction. Consequently, Feutz will be “paying liquidated damages,” reported to be $500 per day.

Councilman Darrel Thomas asked Police Chief Chris Jones if semis were still as big a problem in the downtown as they had been when the detour first went into effect.

Noting that he visited Asbell’s barbershop at the corner of Franklin and Indiana recently, Thomas said he observed two semis coming eastbound on Franklin, while two other semis were westbound at the same time.

“It was a safety issue,” Thomas assured, asking the chief if the semis could be stopped and the name of their company, phone numbers and addresses and contact dispatchers obtained to find out how they are sending trucks down Franklin Street instead of using the prescribed state detour.

“We’re stopping a lot of them,” Chief Jones said. “It’s an ongoing battle. We stop one or two and two more go by. This is the Crossroads of America. People don’t realize how many trucks go through here.”

Separate stories on the Council discussion of the waterline and U.S. reconstruction issue and the target area for residential tax abatement along Tennessee Street were published and posted online previously.