Chapel Hill ponders limits on Halloween
Published: Mon, Sep. 22, 2008 12:30PM
Modified Fri, Sep. 26, 2008 08:11AM
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closeCHAPEL HILL -- Town staff are presenting three options for curtailing Franklin Street's Halloween madness, including abruptly ending it.
In a report going to the Chapel Hill Town Council tonight, the town's police chief and parks and recreation director suggest three alternatives for responding to an annual event that "has become so large as to pose a significant risk to public safety."
In recent years, the informal parade has drawn 80,000 people and required up to 400 law enforcement officers. There have been shootings, arrests and drunkenness. Last week, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce released a survey that showed a majority of downtown merchants suffer property damage from the event each year, some of it major.
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Police Chief Brian Curran and Parks and Recreation Director Butch Kisiah are offering these alternatives:
-- establish a multi-year plan to reduce the size of the event. They say this is their preferred option.
-- Restrict access to the downtown area similar to what was done in 2001, when checkpoints reduced the size of the crowd to 25,000, down from an estimated 50,000 the year before. The two men say this should be part of a larger strategy to reduce out-of-town visitors Halloween night.
-- End the event abruptly. The two say this is not consistent with the community's standards and are not recommending this option.
Tonight's meeting gets under way at 7 p.m. in Chapel Hill Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
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