Cars will be able to drive down Main Street for the annual trick or treating in downtown Belleville from 5 to 7 p.m. on Oct. 31 – just as they have in the past.
At the Oct. 1 Belleville City Council meeting, a move to close off Main Street to make it safer for children was unsuccessful.
The council unanimously voted to continue the annual event as in the past.
“Why fix something that’s not broken?” asked Mayor Pro-Tem Jack Loria who was leading the council meeting in the absence of Mayor Kerreen Conley, who was on vacation.
Loria said he is for safety. The police put up 15 mph speed limit signs and the police reserves and a dozen CERT members will be out helping control the crowd in a very well-lit area.
City Manager Diana Kollmeyer said in order to close the street, they would have to take parking off Main at noon, which would affect merchants.
She said she asked Interim Police Chief Hal Berriman to look at records for the last five years and he said he found no incidents reported to police during the annual event.
Councilwoman Kim Tindall, a member of CERT, said she had three incidents last year where she had to tell someone not to go beyond the tape put out by police along the street. She said all three were adults and children were behaving well.
Chief Berriman said safety is the most important issue. He said if you close off Main Street, the people will be parking in other less-lit areas and there will be children running between cars to go to houses.
“The traffic seems to flow in a similar route,” he continued, noting last year the reserves and tape along the sidewalks was a good thing. He said it is rush hour and the cars will need places to park.
Henry Kurczewski asked about Liberty Street. When Main Street is closed, Liberty Street has to be posted no-parking to allow space for the passage of fire trucks.
The Central Business Community runs the annual event and at a recent CBC meeting members voted 6-4 to ask that Main Street be closed. After discussion, they agreed to let the city decide on the closing.
CBC President Bill Wolters, who voted to close the street, brought the proposal to the city council. CBC Vice President Tom Fielder, who voted against closing Main, addressed the board with his comments, noting there have been zero incidents in the last five or six years of the event.
The council also received a letter from the Belleville Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors asking the council to close the street for trick or treating, explaining that the city closes the street for the car show and, “…we feel it’s equally important for you to close the streets for our children’s safety.”
In other business at the 45-minute meeting, the council:
• Approved a budget amendment of $32,000 to pay for Birchler Arroyo planning consultants to upgrade local records and put into effect the new clearzoning code and zoning ordinance, and zoning map updates to bring Belleville documents into the 21st century. Belleville is the first community in Wayne County to do clearzoning, so it is getting a discount. City Manager Kollmeyer said it will be more user friendly for the public;
• Approved purchase of a 2013 Ford Police Interceptor Sedan, 3.5L, V6, AWD in black for $24,172, due to be delivered in 120 days, about the first of the year;
• Approved the Chamber of Commerce’s Winter Fest 2012 for 3-8 p.m. Dec. 1, starting with entertainment on the stage along Main at 3 p.m. with the street closed between Third and Fifth. The parade begins at 6 p.m. at Belleville High School. A request for no parking along Main was denied. Fireworks will take place from the Denton Road Bridge at the end of the event. The theme is “A Neon Christmas”;
• Approved the BYC’s request to set up a synthetic ice skating rink on the Fourth Street Square for public skating Nov. 30 through Dec. 2. Fielder said the public would like to see skating more often and BYC representative Conrad Welsing said manpower is a problem, but the BYC is amenable to having it other times, but not right now. He said the BYC talked about putting out ads in newspapers asking people to donate skates, since a lot of kids don’t have skates;
• Approved Music Lakeside concert series to be held at Horizon Park on Thursdays at 7 p.m. June 20 through Aug. 8 next summer. An average of 200 people attend the weekly concerts, said Steve Jones, president of the Belleville Area Council for the Arts;
• Approved accounts payable in the amount of $298,584.17 and departmental purchases in excess of $500: Airport Lighting, $738.96 for repairs, from general fund/DDA; American Electrical, $1,000 for repairs; F&R Automotive Car Care, $1,399.75 and $1,623.50 for vehicle maintenance, from drug fund; R. Dixon & Son, $720 for grass cutting; and Wolverine, $613 for sweeper repairs; and
• Heard City Manager Kollmeyer say the city received 20 applications for entries in the scarecrow contest, the most ever. The scarecrows will be erected downtown for the Harvest Fest on Oct. 13.