Angry birds, Zanesville exotic animals, and university and city officials ambled away from Court Street after a quieter-than-usual Halloween jubilee. Arrests were down from last year, and there were no major incidents throughout the night, officials reported.
“It’s been the smallest Halloween in years,” Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi said.
Lombardi and more than 90 other Ohio University employees patrolled Court Street throughout the night.
There were 148 total arrests this weekend, 65 fewer than last year and 15 fewer than 2009’s Hallow’s Eve block party. Of that total, 98 were alcohol-related arrests made by the Ohio Investigative Unit. The rest were made by the Athens and Ohio University police departments.
OUPD made a total of 36 arrests between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m. Saturday night. Of those, 17 were OU students, OUPD Chief Andrew Powers said.
The 36 people arrested received 48 charges, 26 of which were intoxication or underage consumption, he said. Other charges included marijuana possession, paraphernalia and open container violations. Some people received multiple charges, such as underage consumption and resisting arrest, he said.
“This is my third Halloween at OU, and I would say that of the last three years, this one seems to have been the quietest,” Powers said.
Powers cited the cold and rain, the Ohio State University football game and OU’s “Be Smart, Be Civil, Be Safe” campaign as possible contributors to the night’s calm.
Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl was on Court Street for part of the evening and agreed that the crowd was smaller and that the party seemed quieter than usual.
“People are calmer,” he said. “I’m sure the cold slowed down people; it was pretty chilly out there. (Arrests) depend on student behavior and everybody in general. It’s not always students that can get rowdy out there.”
By 11 p.m., there had been 73 total ambulance calls, said Joel Bitters, an Athens County EMS responder.
“I’ve been working Halloween for a while, and this is about average for this part of the night,” Bitters said.
There were 46 confirmed medical emergencies on Court Street as of 2:50 a.m., said Rick Callebs, station chief of Athens County EMS.
There were two reports of assault, one of theft and one of domestic violence between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. yesterday, according to Athens Police Department reports.
Several costumes played off recent Ohio news — such as the Zanesville lions, tigers and bears costumes donned in a nod to the recent exotic-animal escape in Zanesville.
“I think it’s a lot of fun for everybody to be dressed up and be funny and have a night where everybody looks ridiculous,” said Lisa Roach, an OU sophomore studying business in the Honors Tutorial College. Roach, who dressed as a Lego mini-figure, added that a box of Franzia wine was among her favorite costumes from the bash.
Early in the evening, one set of costumes towered above the rest. Students from OU’s printmaking program and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville worked together to craft and display elaborate balloon structures in the shape of nuclear explosions and cancer cells to protest toxicity.
They called the display the Fantasmagoric Printaloon Transformation.
“There were some nice costumes,” Wiehl said. “There were more zombies than usual and less mummies. And I enjoyed the balloon art. It was actually quite stunning.”
rm279109@ohiou.edu
