Halloween is in 290 days.
This means the university, Madison city officials and the Madison Police Department have 289 days to come up with a plan to curb the disturbances on State Street that have plagued the celebration the past three years.
City officials took the first step Dec. 15, 2004 when Police Chief Noble Wray and City Attorney Michael May released a report to Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz on options to eliminate the \Halloween party"" or reduce Halloween problems.
""After the mayor asked for a report, we compiled tactics and strategies from other cities with past Halloween problems and compiled a report,"" May said. ""It took us about six weeks to put the whole thing together.""
Boulder, Colo., La Crosse, Wis., Athens, Ohio, Carbondale, Ill. and Ames, Iowa were among the cities profiled by May and Wray. Each city had dealt with negative incidents in the past, and through discussions with city officials and police from each town, excluding Athens, Madison officials were able to critique strategies to decide which tactics would work for State Street, according to May.
For instance, according to the report, Boulder blocked off the main entrances into the city to stop out-of-towners from entering the city. Extreme measures such as this have some citizens frightened that Halloween's fright-fest on State Street will disappear, according to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4.
""I think many of the Madison media have left the perception that the report is actually a compilation of recommendations,"" said Verveer, who for the past two years has been a part of the police department's city Halloween planning group. ""What it is is actually a first effort at a solution to our own Halloween issues to see how other communities dealt with problems and how successful they were in their attempts.""
The cities were not chosen only because they had Halloween problems in the past, but because most are university towns that are relatively comparable in size, though every place is different, according to George Twigg, assistant to Mayor Cieslewicz.
He said although it is too early to tell what exactly the city is going to do, the mayor wants to see significant change by Halloween 2005.
""The Halloween planning committee is starting again dialogue with student leaders, police-everyone who has a stake in this. There will be no more tear gas. No one wants any more tear gas,"" Twigg said. ""Whatever happens, there will be a change for Halloween 2005. Though what is going to happen is broad right now, this year will not follow status quo.""
The Halloween committee has not met since the report was drafted, according to Verveer. It will most likely not meet until February after a report detailing Halloween 2004 in Madison, which the police are drafting right now, is made public.
The Halloween committee was originally started following the Halloween riots in 2002. After the riots occurred again in 2003, Verveer said the city, police and committee doubled their efforts to stop trouble on State Street. After this past year, he saw an even greater need to stop possible problems because, though there were no riots, the night ended in police use of pepper spray. However, he said he does not necessarily think highly of some of the other cities' solutions.
""I think many of the strategies are wholly inappropriate for State Street ... I do not want the heavy-handed tactics some cities used,"" Verveer said. ""I think cutting off the downtown (La Crosse, Wis.), and similarly shutting down all businesses (Carbondale, Ill.) is too extreme and wrong-headed and would not be tolerated by the community. I like the idea of letting a certain number of people in certain blocks, kind of like one in, one out, because that would probably keep things in control. But, we will see.""
Other possibilites include moving the State Street gathering to Langdon Street and limiting the sale of alcohol.
