Oshkosh council votes down resolution to extend outdoor drinking hours on Saturday despite Farmers Market request
OSHKOSH - The Oshkosh City Council declined to adjust the hours when bar patrons are allowed to carry alcoholic beverages outside to fit the Oshkosh Farmers Market's schedule.
The council voted 5-2 Tuesday night to reject the motion that would have extended the Saturday hours of the Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area. The motion asked for the ordinance to start at 10 a.m. to coincide with the start of the farmers market. Instead, the hours will stay from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturdays.
Board members from the Oshkosh Farmers Market sent a letter to the council Thursday recommending the DORA hours on Saturday begin at 10 a.m., like the initial proposal.
In the original proposal, the Downtown Oshkosh Business Improvement District suggested the outdoor refreshment district allow anyone legally able to drink to carry alcoholic drinks outside, with the guidelines in place from 5 to 9 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays.
However, a motion from council member Michael Ford that received a unanimous vote limited the hours to just 5 to 9 p.m. on Saturdays.
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In the letter to the council, Michael Cooney, the chair of the Oshkosh Farmers Market board, said he believed the availability of alcohol would "enhance" the experience of shoppers and possibly "bring new people to the market" after it was available at the winter markets.
Council member Bill Miller helped cosponsor the resolution to change the hours from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays. He said he initially agreed to change the start time on Saturday to 5 p.m. because he did not know the Farmers Market would support the 10 a.m. start time.
Once the market showed its support, he put forward the resolution, along with council member Courtney Hansen.
Hansen and Miller were the only two who voted for the resolution Tuesday.
Other council members argued it was important to keep the "consistency" of the initial pilot program for this year.
Ford said he previously defended DORA and voted for it with the amended hours last council meeting. He said any changes should wait until next year, and that if the council voted to change it back, it could make people who were skeptical of the DORA program lose trust in the council.
"I think if we vote yes on this action today, we would erode that trust," Ford said. "Instead of putting energy into making DORA work … we (would) put our energies into backtracking on a vote for the pilot program."
During Tuesday's meeting, two men involved with Breakwater Oshkosh, a group of community residents and partner organizations focused on preventing and reducing youth substance use throughout our region, asked the council not to increase the hour to reduce the amount of drinking downtown.
Thomas Mittelsteadt, who runs MJM Behavioral Health on Main Street, said he thinks allowing the DORA program only serves to "keep people drinking" and expanding hours for any reason would force some people to avoid all of downtown on the weekends.
"The farmers market is one of the few family friendly events we have in Downtown Oshkosh," Mittelsteadt said. "We'd like to keep it that way."
On June 28, the council voted 5-2 to change an ordinance and passed a resolution to create an area that would let patrons carry alcoholic beverages bought from participating locations in a special downtown area.
Those boundaries would stretch from North Main Street — roughly from Irving Avenue to the Riverwalk — extending near the river to encompass an area west to Jackson Street and east to the Leach Amphitheater.
The DORA rules went into effect the weekend of July 15. The initial pilot program will continue until the end of the outdoor farmers market season, which is at the end of October.
Contact Bremen Keasey at 920-570-5614 or bkeasey@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Keasinho.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Oshkosh council votes down resolution to extend DORA hours on Saturday
