TO: Mayor and Town Council
FROM: W. Calvin Horton, Town Manager
SUBJECT: Apple Chill 2006 Police Operations Plan
DATE: April 10, 2006
The purpose of this memorandum is to present the police operations plan for managing Apple Chill 2006.
BACKGROUND
For the past several years Apple Chill has become an event extending six Town blocks and attracting approximately 15,000 visitors, including several hundred motorcyclists, from throughout the region. Over the past five years the fair has expanded its boundaries three blocks west to Graham Street, necessitating a significant change in traffic control patterns and a significant increase in the number of police and support personnel assigned to the festival.
We have observed over the past two Halloween and Apple Chill events and last year’s Final Four celebration that the tenor of our large crowd events on Franklin Street has changed. While the great majority of participants celebrated safely and presented no significant public safety challenges, police officers have reported concerns about the behavior of those who tend to loiter in the closed event area after the fair is officially over. There has been an increase in fights, assaults, reports of gunfire and damage to property. It is for these reasons that the number of public safety personnel used for these events has increased.
DISCUSSION
The Apple Chill street festival is scheduled for Sunday, April 23, 2006. Festival hours are from 1:00 PM through 6:00 PM. The festival boundaries extend from the intersection of East Franklin Street and Raleigh Street to the intersection of West Franklin Street and Graham Street. Parks and Recreation officials expect to have over 200 vendors between Raleigh Street and Church Street.
The closed area of the festival between Church and Graham Streets on West Franklin will include space for approximately one thousand motorcyclists who are expected to participate in the motorcycle show that will take place between 1:00 PM and 6:00 PM. It is likely that several hundred more motorcycles will come to the fair area but will not be able to enter the motorcycle show due to limited space. Last year approximately 700 motorcyclists participated.
Last year 135 police officers provided security and traffic control at Apple Chill. This year 230 officers will work the event. Approximately 190 of those officers will report in the late afternoon and will be assigned to traffic and crowd management duties throughout the evening and into the nighttime hours. Officers from nine municipal and state agencies will be helping the Town with this event. The additional officers are necessary to provide preventive foot patrols, traffic direction, and high levels of visibility inside and outside of the fair perimeter, both during and after the fair. They are also necessary to ensure the safety of all participants and visitors, particularly in light of the increased number of fights and disturbances that have occurred at recent large-scale downtown events, including Apple Chill 2005.
We anticipate that Rosemary Street and Cameron Avenue will be congested throughout most of Sunday afternoon and evening. At least 40 police officers and up to 100 private parking monitors will be assigned to parking and traffic control duties in the festival area and on most residential side streets off of Rosemary Street, Franklin Street and Cameron Avenue, from Roosevelt Drive to Merritt Mill. Parks and Recreation officials will work with local media outlets to disseminate information regarding traffic patterns and street closings to churches, businesses and residents in and around the affected areas.
Further measures will be taken this year to improve the safety in the downtown area, particularly during the late stages of the fair. Portable highway lighting units will be stationed in areas that have proven troublesome in past years, including along both West Franklin and West Rosemary Streets. Private property owners in the event area have been asked to grant written authorization to the police to maintain control over their property during the event. Squads of officers will be assigned to patrol areas outside of the festival area to monitor the activities of the overflow crowd that drifts outside of the closed areas.
We have been working closely with Carrboro officials in an attempt to coordinate traffic patterns during Apple Chill and the post-fair activities. It is possible that their decisions regarding traffic flow may increase congestion along Town streets, particularly for westbound traffic on West Rosemary Street and West Cameron Avenue. Regardless of the traffic flow patterns that are used on April 23, the size of this event will result in extreme traffic congestion.
In an attempt to regulate this event in the same manner as we do other large events such as Halloween and NCAA celebrations, the police department intends to enforce the ending time of the event. We anticipate that vendors will be out of the closed area by 7:30 PM. Public Works crews will then begin cleaning the streets. Police officers will direct anyone remaining in the street to the sidewalks so that the vacuum and trash trucks can begin their sweeps of the roadway. Officers will keep pedestrians off the street while the clean-up takes place.
We expect that traffic congestion in the downtown area will continue for two or three hours after Franklin Street is open to traffic. Based on past experience we expect thousands of pedestrians to remain downtown and anticipate that vehicles will continue to cruise the main streets until at least 11:00 PM. The police department will ensure that adequate resources remain downtown until the traffic and crowds have dissipated.
CONCLUSION
Town staff members, particularly those in the police and public works departments, have extensive experience in managing events such as Apple Chill. We anticipate that this year’s crowd, both in terms or people and vehicles, will be the largest ever for an Apple Chill festival. The plans that are in place to manage the event have been developed to protect life and property, to provide the most efficient traffic flow practicable, to mitigate the impact of the event on surrounding residential neighborhoods and to help event participants and visitors have an enjoyable time.