A quiet Gotham City will keep the dance alive

By Sherrie Peif

speif@mywindsornow.com

The Gotham City theme for this year's Windsor High School homecoming dance could see the likes of Joe Chill swooping in to ruin the moment.

Chill won't be killing Bruce Wayne's parents this time, but he certainly could kill the moment if students aren't on their best behavior.

The Windsor High School student council, represented by its president, Michelle Markham, asked the Windsor Town Board on Monday to waive the standard 10 p.m. noise ordinance rule so it could have the dance outside.

"We were wanting to do something different this year," Michelle said.

Because they wanted to do everything right, Michelle said she and several other students spent much of last weekend combing the immediate area around the school getting signatures from neighbors in support of the one-time waiver.

The group collected 70 signatures and received no opposition to the idea, Michelle said, although many people weren't home at the time.

But the requirement of public hearings for resolution changes to the Town's ordinance coupled with time constraints for the event tied the hands of the Town Board.

"We knew there would be a problem with the noise," Michelle said. "But the DJ is willing to work with us to make sure there isn't a problem. And we moved the end time up to 11:30 instead of the usual midnight to help."

Town attorney Ian McCargar said he was concerned with the Town Board setting a precedence for ordinance waivers.

"You don't want to give the impression that if there's a problem with an ordinance, all you have to do is show up at a Town Board meeting and ask for a waiver," McCargar said.

Mayor John Vázquez said he saw the situation a bit differently. Vázquez said the Town Board has voted on many resolutions in a hurry, and he doesn't see this one as any different.

Windsor Police Chief John Michaels told the Town Board the ordinance wasn't that all noise had to cease and desist at 10 p.m. Michaels said the threshold for when complaints would be investigated is after 10 p.m.

Vázquez asked the Town Board members if they would support giving direction to Michaels to work with the student council to allow the dance to go on, with the students understanding it was up to them to be respectful.

"If it goes past 10, (and the police department receives complaints) then officers will contact the school and say we must come to a resolution to this quickly," Michaels said.

District No. 5 representative Robert Bishop-Cotner, who in his role as a political science teacher at Brighton High School is the student council liaison, applauded Michelle and her group for trying to do things the right way.

"I have to applaud you for having the thought to go out and get 70 residents to sign a petition and the gutsiness to have this dance outside," he said with a laugh. "Who-ha for you. My head spins just thinking about it."

At-large member Nancy Weber agreed.

"Not a lot of people would do that," Weber said. "If they went to residents, I would guess we're not going to have a whole lot of complaints. If we do, it's unfortunate. But I'd rather our kids be at a supervised event than somewhere else."

At-large member Richard Drake and District No. 1 representative Jon Slater didn't agree. They believed the student council should see this as a learning tool for approaching the situation in a more scheduled manner next time.

"This is government, and they need to know the rules," Drake said. "I think this is a good learning experience for them."

Slater was also concerned about the lack of a public hearing.

"I don't want to blind-side the guy who lives across the street and didn't have the opportunity to speak out against it," Slater said.

With five Town Board members supporting the idea, the Town Board gave its support for the dance to be held outside with a word of caution to Michelle that if too many complaints came in, the dance could still be canceled since it was not voting to actually waive the ordinance.

"You need to be cognizant that after 10 p.m. not all your peers are going to be courteous. You need to police each other," Vázquez said. "Ten p.m. is the witching hour. You'll have the bonus time if you are responsible with it."

Markham said she would do everything she could to make sure her classmates understood.

"I will inform the student body that we need to be careful about what we are doing," she said.