FAYETTEVILLE, Ark — A new ordinance in Fayetteville will allow restaurants on Dickson Street to offer to-go alcoholic drinks in specially designed cups to help businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Starting next week, the City of Fayetteville will start a pilot program limited to a portion of the downtown area to offer to-go drinks.
“This is specifically designed to encourage people to spend their money locally at some of these places that have been hurting,” said Bo Counts, owner of Pinpoint.
The new ordinance, which is set to begin Wednesday (July 22), will allow bars and restaurants to sell to-go cups for outdoor drinking. There will be zones in place and rules to follow.
“You have to have an armband you have to have a specific cup you have to purchase that beverage at a participating bar or restaurant,” Counts said.
The drinking zone will run from Watson to Mountain Street and From East to West Avenue.
There are also other pockets around the zone to accommodate certain businesses close by.
Director of Economic Vitality Devin Howland says this plan has been in the works since the beginning of the year.
“It’s not a new ordinance in the sense we have been working on it for eight months with our downtown businesses,” Howland said.
He says it was brought to the city in March, but because of the pandemic, it took a backseat to other pressing issues.
The business community and the City think now is the time for this type of plan.
“When it’s becoming more clear that it is safer outside with this pandemic that this could be incredibly powerful tool to help make sales safely,” Howland said.
The ordinance will run from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. Howland says this plan will help keep businesses from going under during this time of economic distress.
“We don’t want to imagine a Fayetteville without some of these anchor institutions, these institutions that have been in the fabric of this community for so long,” Howland said.
Local businesses say they wanted this implemented before school started in order to have a solid plan in place and to sure up any possible confusion.
More information on this ordinance will be released in the coming days.