Carmel committee keeps aluminum DORA cup, approves sticker use and bars co-branded cups

CARMEL, Ind. — The Central DORA Committee voted July 29 to retain the aluminum DORA cup as the default container for alcohol sold inside the city’s Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area, approved using a city-issued sticker for unusually sized tasting cups at events, and declined to allow co-branded or promotional logos on DORA cups for now. The committee’s decisions followed a lengthy discussion about persistent supply-chain delays, vendor responsibility for ordering cups and near-term festival logistics, including Brews on the Boulevard (Aug. 23) and Oktoberfest (Oct. 3). The decisions matter because DORA rules require alcohol sold inside the district to be served in an approved DORA cup; committee members said unpredictability in cup deliveries has made planning and enforcement difficult. “If a plastic cup will be added as an option, it will provide a lot of flexibility and will really eliminate the majority of logistical difficulties that we’re having with events and ordering of the cups,” Sergei Grichuk of the Office of Corporation Counsel said during the meeting. Kelly Douglas, a member of the city marketing department, told the committee the city initially distributed a 600-cup box to every new DORA participant but has held back further distributions when suppliers delayed deliveries. “We’ve actually had to hold on giving any of those out because we felt that we didn’t want to create a…