For city council members, the crowds of Welcome Weekend mean it’s time to start planning for an even busier Uptown event — the Halloween Block Party.
Though Halloween is still more than two months away, the local legislators will start laying the groundwork for the event at Monday night’s committee meeting.
The council members have to pass ordinances that will close off Court Street to traffic, allow for street vendors and temporarily suspend the city’s noise ordinance.
But council will also start making plans for other Halloween-related festivities.
“The Uptown Business Association also has an annual trick or treat for children,” Council President Chris Knisely said.
Last year, a local business owner objected to an ordinance that would have closed Court Street for the event, according to previous Post reports.
“I am a Halloween-based business. I will make more money in one day during the week leading to Halloween than in the entire month of June,” Barbara Stout, owner of Athens Underground, said in a previous Post report. “I have no other choice but to shut down due to traffic issues. I can’t have kids running down the stairs into my business.”
Council struck down the measure two to five. The last time the street had been closed for the event was in 2008, according to a previous Post report.
Councilwoman Michele Papai, D-3rd Ward, said the closing would affect more than just Athens Underground.
“(Business owners) don’t all benefit from the things that get done," Papai said. "We might want to put a think tank group together to talk about it."
The city is also preparing to pay back the funds needed to build the new city pool. The city will receive a rating on the bond it took out. A good rating would mean the city will be more likely to get good rates on loans in the future, Knisely said.
“When we have a bond to finance major project ... that bond rating becomes very important,” she said.
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