Rich Fowler
Staff Writer
The Town of Chapel Hill wants to discourage people from coming to this year’s Halloween celebration. Roughly 80,000 people came last year and the town expects to see about the same number of people again this year.
As part of the effort to rein in the celebration and make it safer, the town negotiated with local bars and restaurants to limit alcohol sales. As a result, on Halloween every bar and restaurant on Franklin Street will charge a minimum $5 cover charge starting at 10 p.m. and they will all close their doors to new patrons at 1 a.m.
Scott Maitland, owner of Top of the Hill Restaurant and Brewery, thanked town leaders for working with bar and restaurant owners on Franklin Street.
“I just want to give all of you a pat on the back for starting a process that will proactively make sure that there are no problems in future Halloween events,†Maitland said.
Accessing the downtown area will be difficult. Starting at 8 p.m., inbound traffic on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard from Estes Drive toward downtown and on East Franklin Street from Estes Drive toward downtown will be restricted to one lane, and one lane will be reserved for emergency vehicles.
Motorists trying to come downtown from Columbia Street will be diverted at Manning Drive. Traffic coming in from South Road will be diverted down along Ridge Road and back to Fordham Boulevard.
Chapel Hill Police Chief Brian Curran said that he doesn’t plan on setting up any checkpoints, but a number of Highway Patrol units will be working along the perimeter of the event.
“One of the things they like to do is DWI enforcement, and we’re not going to discourage them from doing that,†he said.
From 9 p.m. until midnight, the following downtown streets will be closed to vehicles: Franklin Street from Raleigh Street to Roberson Street, Columbia Street from Rosemary Street to Cameron Avenue, Raleigh Street from East Franklin Street to Cameron Avenue and Henderson Street from East Rosemary Street to East Franklin Street. Residential streets around downtown will only be open to people who live on those streets and their guests.
Parking in the downtown area will be in very short supply, and on the streets the town plans to close it will start towing cars at 6 p.m. It will cost a minimum of $103 to get towed cars back from the town.
Chapel Hill Transit will no longer run shuttles from its park-and-ride lots to and from Franklin Street. It will be running a special evening service on the D, J, NS and NU routes that will end early. The D route will end at the Mary Ellen Jones Building at 9:10 p.m., the J route will end at Rock Creek Apartments at 8:56 p.m., the NS route will end at Eubanks Road Park-and-Ride at 8:37 p.m. and the NU route will end at the Carolina Coffee Shop at 8:56 p.m.
Shared-ride service will be available for people who want to travel later in the evening, but advance reservations will be required. Reservations will be available starting Friday, Oct. 24 until Friday, Oct. 31 at 5 p.m. To schedule a ride, call Chapel Hill Transit Reservations at 969-5544.
Chapel Hill Transit will also be running its Safe Ride service on its Safe T, JV and G routes, but with some stop changes due to the street closures. Safe JV and G routes will pick up and drop off at Sitterson Hall on Columbia Street and the Safe T route will pick up and drop off at Town Hall on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Service will start a little after 11 p.m. and will run until a little after 2 a.m.
UNC’s point-to-point shuttle service will run its normal routes with extended hours.
The following items are prohibited from the downtown area during the celebration: alcoholic beverages, weapons, glass bottles, paint, fireworks, explosives, flammable substances, animals and coolers. Anything else that could be used as a weapon or mistaken for one will be confiscated.
For more details, including the latest transit maps and schedules for Halloween, visit the town’s website at www.townofchapelhill.org/halloween