By BRIAN LEAHY
of The Gazette
Tavern customers who may have had one or more too many drinks can get a safe ride home for $5.
The Safe Ride Home program is offered at Portage County Tavern League member establishments only. Unlike the former Home Free program, the Safe Ride Home program is not limited to the immediate Stevens Point area.
"They can go anywhere in the county," said Frank Jurgella, president of the Portage County Tavern League. "They'll pick you up in Stevens Point and take you to Almond or pick you up in Almond and take you to Stevens Point."
Money to begin the program came through the Wisconsin Tavern League from a state Department of Revenue grant. The state grant was a matching fund, so the Portage County Tavern League held a fund-raiser at Shooters to raise additional money. Baer Beverage, the local Budweiser distributor, has given the county Tavern League $3,000 for the Safe Ride Home program. Courtesy Cab of Plover provides the rides.
The county Tavern League will continue to apply for the grants, but Jurgella looks at the grant money as startup funds, not a long-term funding source.
"We are basically trying to get this program off the ground by itself," Jurgella said. "We basically want to raise money each year to keep the program solvent."
The Safe Ride Home program has two main goals.
"No. 1 is to promote safety on the highways and show the Tavern League supports safety on the highways," Jurgella said.
The second goal is to protect customers. A customer arrested for drunk driving faces hundreds of dollars in fines, insurance rate increases and other costs.
"You can lose a customer really quick that way," Jurgella said. "It's good for all."
To get a ride home, a customer needs to ask a bartender for a voucher, which must then be signed to be valid. Either the bar or the customer can pay the $5 voucher fee. The cost is $2 for each additional rider.
The voucher has four copies - one for the cab, one for the bar, one for the customer and one for the customer's windshield. By putting the voucher copy on their cars' windshields, customers will avoid getting ticketed for illegal overnight parking. The Portage County Sheriff's Department and Plover and Stevens Point police departments were all supportive of the windshield voucher idea, Jurgella said.
Rides are to get people home. They will have to arrange their own transportation to get their cars back the next day.
The Safe Ride Home program began in mid-September and is offered on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. In October, no one utilized the program. There were six riders in November and nine in December.
It "takes a little bit of education" to get people to use the program, Jurgella said. Bar owners are making their bartenders aware of the program. About one-half of county Tavern League members have posted the brightly-colored posters that tell about the Safe Ride Program.
Jurgella would like to expand the program in the future to include office parties.