Once again, like they do every year, Athens City Council is complaining about losing money paying for the Halloween party on Court Street. While complaining is certainly easier than coming up with proactive ways to reduce costs, it is getting old. Halloween is expensive for the city of Athens; we understand that. Now it's time to move on and do something to reduce or eliminate that cost, and try to profit off the massive influx of people.
Athens has every right to make money off the street party, and city council should continue to look for ways to accomplish that ' ways that do not include putting up a fence around Court Street and charging a fee to enter (unless, of course, the city wants to get its money's worth by having its myriad of police officers spend their evening trying to prevent, then suppress, a riot).
But until the city comes up with proactive solutions, council can start by evaluating how many police are truly necessary. Despite decreasing violence levels and party attendance, Athens lost more money this year than last, because the city seems to always try to maintain the same police presence. Hiring outside police officers costs money; thus, the increase in costs should hardly come as a shock.
Certainly, while trying to play it safe is commendable, city council could have taken a look at years past and determined that fewer officers were needed. The police presence shouldn't be eliminated, but it should be more reasonable.
Despite the costs and frustrations, it would be a shame if city council tried to kill the party because they didn't want to put forth the effort to figure out a way to make money off thousands of revelers.
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City Council should look at past Halloween events to quell losses, profit from visitors
