TELULAH PARK RAVE DESERVES TO BE SHUT DOWN

If the rave planned for Saturday at Appleton's Telulah Park had gone off as
scheduled and had drawn the expected crowd of 500, quite a few people would
have been surprised.

First, there's the Parks and Recreation Department, which rented the park's
two pavilions to two Appleton men for the day after it was indicated to the
department that only 50 people would be involved.

Then, there are the people who live near Telulah Park, who no doubt would
have wondered what the crowd and the music were all about.

Finally, there's the Appleton Police Department, which given the size of
the crowd, certainly could have been called to the park for crowd control,
traffic control or any number of other issues.

The point is that there are a lot of problems that could have developed,
simply because the right people didn't know what was being planned.

For that reason, Appleton police made the correct moves once they heard
about the scheduled rave from the Sheboygan County Sheriff's Department,
who found out about it at a Sheboygan Falls rave last weekend.

And Mayor Tim Hanna did the right thing by declaring the park closed
Saturday and asking the Parks and Recreation Department to return the
rental fee for the pavilions to the two organizers.

Another rave promoter, Manitowoc's Adam Peace, who said he planned to
attend the Telulah Park event, said city officials overreacted and shut
down the rave for political gain.

He said it was just going to be an all-day picnic with techno music and
added that raves, at least the ones he promotes, have evolved into more
like concerts, with insurance, professional security and involvement from
law enforcement.

But the organizers of the Telulah Park rave did not alert local law
enforcement and did not accurately describe to the Parks and Recreation
Department the type and size of event they had planned. They didn't request
a special-event permit and didn't request a noise variance.

In effect, they didn't follow the rules set up to prevent exactly the kinds
of problems an event like this could lead to.

Unfortunately, the police department will have to send officers to the park
entrance Saturday to turn people away and those who want to use the park
for other reasons - disc golf, hiking, just playing - will get shut out, too.