Those visiting Newport’s Monmouth Street will soon be able to sip on an alcoholic beverage while strolling in a designated entertainment district.
Newport voted Monday to adopt a pilot program called the Newport Entertainment District, or NED, within defined boundaries along Monmouth Street from the intersection of 3rd Street south to the intersection of 11th Street. Entertainment districts allow patrons to consume alcohol outdoors in a designated cup and bring it into participating businesses like shops that don’t typically serve alcohol.
During Monday’s meeting, Newport City Manager Tom Fromme said that if the pilot fails, the city will not keep pushing to make it work.
“It could be a big success; it could be a failure,” Fromme said. “It could be in between and valuable only on special events. It’s a step forward for a pilot program, and then we’re going to monitor this to see how this goes as we move to the future.”
All commissioners voted to approve the district except for Ken Rechtin. He said before the city adopted an entertainment district, he would have liked to see them reconstitute a main street commission or Monmouth Street commission with a manager dedicated to the street.
“I do not believe process-wise we’ve served the industry well enough to make a determination like this,” Rechtin said.
Fromme said that the city held input sessions and received feedback from residents and businesses in the proposed area. Businesses can also opt out of the program and do not have to allow people to walk into their establishments with the cups.
While no residents or business owners chose to address the commission on the item at Monday’s meeting, Former Newport Mayor and Monmouth Street business owner and resident Jerry Peluso told the commission at last month’s meeting that he opposed the district.
Peluso said he has a front-row seat to misbehavior along Monmouth Street.
“There’s one common denominator that has control on one’s unpredictable behavior, and it’s called alcohol,” Peluso said at the September meeting. “What happens when you mix alcohol with irresponsible non-resident public intoxicated people?”
He said what happened was vandalism, graffiti, public urination, vomit, litter, etc., that he found outside his property.
During the September meeting, Newport Mayor Tom Guidugli Jr. asked Newport Police Chief Christopher Fangman if the district required more policing and if the department could handle it. Fangman said that the department serves Newport’s 14,000 residents and is equipped to serve the 50,000 people who run through the city daily.
Newport Commissioner Julie Smith-Morrow said she was pleased with the district’s adoption and believed the city had taken its time to get it right.
“Knowing that it’s going to possibly take several months to get approval from the state, I would like us to use that time to begin to work on developing what a role for city staff could be for creating and promoting a variety of events, especially hearing with residents and businesses that is very important and will have the potential to contribute significantly to the success,” she said.
Now that the city has passed the ordinance, it must be approved by the state. Fromme said it took Dayton over 90 days to get theirs approved and estimated the district wouldn’t go into effect until Spring of next year.
Newport Commissioner Mike Radwanski said he was also pleased with the passing of the district and said one of the reasons he felt comfortable with it is because of Fromme’s oversights as city manager and as a former Newport police chief.
“Every main street is a fingerprint, and Monmouth Street is unique to Newport,” he said. “It’s part of our history, and hopefully, it will be a part of something exciting for many years to come.”
