The Downtown Coordinating Committee and the Madison Police Department made assurances that Madison is prepared for any potential problems this year after outlining the final details of Halloween 2006 Thursday.
MPD Central District Capt. Mary Schauf and Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, answered questions and dispelled several rumors circulating about this year's celebration.
According to Schauf, it is unlikely large crowds will gather on streets adjacent to State Street. However, she said MPD is prepared, with plans to have eight mobile teams patrolling the campus area.
Schauf added that each mobile team consists of four to five officers, accounting for more than 40 officers in locations other than State Street.
"There's a huge plan that involves how we move different people to anywhere if there's a situation we have," Schauf said. "If we have to move parts of the set unit from State Street to another area, we're prepared to do that as well. … The communications systems are all in place to do that."
Mary Carbine, executive director of Madison's Central Business Improvement District, said the city is also prepared to sell a massive number of tickets the night of Oct. 28. So far, Verveer said the Madison Parks Department has sold close to 5,000 tickets.
"There is a plan for a large number of people showing up without tickets because I think that's going to be the situation," Carbine added.
Carbine said each ticket booth on State Street the night of the event will be able to sell about 70 tickets per minute, which amounts to approximately 4,000 tickets per hour per booth.
Schauf added that if certain ticket booths are not as popular while others are swamped with crowds of people, the plan is to simply move the trailers to double productivity.
Another common misconception Schauf said she wanted to dispel was the idea that Friday night of Halloween will be more crowded because people won't have to pay to enter State Street. The city's plan for Friday Oct. 27 will be similar to years past, she said, with adequate staffing, fencing and lights.
"The fencing won't be fully up Friday, but we found with our work last year that it worked very well to control crowd movement at the end of the night," Schauf said. "We're going to take those same elements to regulate pedestrian flow."
To inform out-of-town guests of the new Halloween policies, she said the city has created paper flyers to distribute to hotel guests.
Overall, Verveer said Halloween plans are moving along and city officials are just working to dispel circulating myths and keep students and residents informed.
"I think things are going very well. … The police department, of course, has had this dumped in their lap, and the Parks Department has had this dumped in their lap more than years past," Verveer said. "In talking to downtown residents, I think people are moving forward with a pretty optimistic attitude. I think we're all looking forward to the weekend."
