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Oct. 17, 2002--University of Delaware students and personnel and Newark residents will notice a change soon in drink specials at local bars and restaurants designed to discourage binge drinking in the community. A new City Council ordinance, which goes into effect Monday, Dec. 23, restricts happy hours to between 4 and 9 p.m.
The new ordinance states, in part, that: “There shall be no alcoholic beverage promotional activities that encourage excessive consumption on the premises.”
The amendment to the zoning code was endorsed by Newark Mayor Hal Godwin, whose Mayor’s Alcohol Commission sponsored the report upon which the recommended changes were based.
Also approved by the council were regulations restricting new restaurants with bars from opening within 300 feet of facilities such as churches, schools, dormitories and residences and prohibiting new businesses from opening as taverns or tap rooms, where no food is sold along with alcoholic beverages. An older restriction keeping businesses from selling alcohol adjacent to the such facilities was upheld, and liquor stores were added to the list of businesses that must comply with this restriction.
John Bishop, UD associate vice president for counseling and student development, called the new ordinance “a step in the right direction to limit the amount of price discounting of alcohol that can be done in the city of Newark.”
Bishop also is co-chair of the Building Responsibility Coalition, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded campus community coalition that aims to help reduce dangerous alcohol-related activities, especially binge drinking among University students.
“People tend to overindulge when alcohol is offered at very cheap prices,” Larry Thornton, director of UD public safety, said. “When people go to happy hour, it’s different than later at night.”
Thornton said he hopes that the new ordinance will “get people thinking about over-consuming alcohol and not make it as easy as it has been in the past to do so.”
Article by Jeanine McGann
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