Chapel Hill to restrict Halloween reveling

CHAPEL HILL -- The town of Chapel Hill is pulling up the Halloween welcome mat.

In an effort to cut the 80,000-plus crowds that can descend on Franklin Street Oct. 31, the town plans to make it harder for out-of-town revelers to make it in. And to make sure those who do stay sober -- or at least not "smashed out of their gourds" as Town Council member Mark Kleinschmidt described it -- the town may ban alcohol sales past a certain hour.

"It's just getting too crazy out there right now," Police Chief Brian Curran said.

Last year the town spent about $221,000 on personnel -- up to 400 law enforcement officers and 125 firefighters to handle emergency medical calls -- and other costs, according to a memo Curran and town Parks and Recreation Director Butch Kisiah prepared for Monday's meeting.

Last year, 13 people were arrested and eight people were taken to UNC Hospitals, according to police. In 2006, police arrested 27 people, and a man was shot during a robbery. Another 18 people were taken to the hospital, most for intoxication.

Curran and Kisiah presented the Town Council with three options Monday night:

•Reduce the size of the event over several years and create a community-focused event. They say this is the option they plan to pursue.

•Restrict downtown access as was done in 2001, when checkpoints cut the crowd to 25,000, half what it was the year before. Curran said the current plan is to end shuttle bus service to downtown from the town's park-and-ride lots and to reduce incoming traffic to one lane on major roads leading to Franklin Street.

•End the event abruptly. The two, however, say this is not consistent with the community's values.

The town does not sponsor the Halloween celebration. In recent years, fewer people have been dressing in costumes and more people have been coming from out of town, many of them in charter buses from other college campuses.

Town staff will meet with local bar owners before deciding whether to restrict alcohol sales. Curran his preference is to see sales stopped after 9 p.m., when police close downtown streets.