Some people opposed a pilot project to allow open alcohol downtown Mishawaka, but it’s gone so well that it could soon be expanded.
This summer the Mishawaka Common Council approved a bill to let people carry open alcoholic drinks purchased from bars in the Ironworks Plaza area. They created a Designated Outside Refreshment Area, or DORA, that’s allowed under a new Indiana law. Customers can only carry the drinks in officially designated to-go cups from certain bars at specific times.
Three Ironworks bars have been participating since early September. Council President Gregg Hixenbaugh says there seem to have been no problems so far, so now the council is considering whether to expand the DORA to parts of Main Street and Lincolnway downtown to include bars there.
Hixenbaugh says the bill is set for a public hearing and final vote Dec. 2. He said its odds for passing seem good, while noting he wants to hear feedback from police to be sure.
"I think there is a really good chance that this expansion of the map will be successful," Hixenbaugh said, "but that will be predicated upon what we learn and hear as we continue to move through the public process."
