Mayor Dave Cieslewicz's plan to fence off State Street and charge $5 admission to Halloween will have to wait two more weeks for approval.
Facing growing student opposition to the plan as well as the efforts of two city alders to postpone the vote, Cieslewicz backed off his initial stance of strong opposition to a delay at the meeting.
A final vote is now scheduled for the city council's Sept. 19 meeting. In the meantime, Alds. Mike Verveer, District 4 and Austin King, District 8, have scheduled a town hall meeting with UW-Madison students, police and the mayor to discuss Halloween planning. The meeting will take place Sept. 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Bascom Hall.
Under Cieslewicz's current plan, Halloween partiers would not only have to pay for admission to State Street, but could also be limited to a maximum number of 50,000.
Along with King, Verveer lead the opposition to a final vote on the mayor's plan. He said student fears of underage drinking tickets and police heavy-handedness also contributed to making a delay imperative.
Despite strong council opposition to a final vote, supporters of the mayor's plan did testify at the meeting. Susan Schmidt of Downtown Madison Inc. said Halloween has proven to be out of control in recent years and needs to ""move in a new direction.""
""It is time for the city of Madison to take back Halloween on State Street,"" Schmidt said.
Ald. Judy Compton, District 16, was the lone city council opponent of delaying a final vote.
""Charging is a very good thing to do to help offset costs to the taxpayer,"" Compton said, claiming that students could still have a chance to give input in coming weeks even if the plan was approved.
However, student opposition to the mayor's plan began almost immediately after it was announced this summer.
A Facebook group dedicated to moving Halloween to Langdon Street sprung up quickly after the plan was made public, introducing the possibility of parallel celebrations during Halloween weekend.
Tom Wangard, the group's founder, spoke at Tuesday's meeting as the head of the Halloween Action Committee. Wangard said he has altered his position in recent weeks, following discussions with Verveer, King and Cieslewicz.
""We started as a reactionary group opposed to the mayor's original plan,"" Wangard said.
He added the group now seeks a compromise with the mayor's office.
As a joke, the council also approved a motion to designate Pluto as Madison's ninth planet Tuesday, which Cieslewicz supported—but only under one condition.
""If Pluto wants to get into the solar system,"" the mayor said, ""I'm going to charge it five bucks.""
