After another uneventful Leprecon where the Hoboken Police Department made just four arrests, 1st Ward Councilman Mike DeFusco plans to introduce local legislation to create a fund to pay for public safety and clean up costs related to bar crawls.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Taxpayers have long hoped to recoup tax dollars spent on policing and cleaning up after bar crawls like Santa-con and Lepre-con,” DeFusco said in a statement.
“An overwhelming majority of bar owners are responsible partners and have looked to work with the City to contribute into a fund that would help support quality of life in downtown Hoboken, however the administration has been unwilling to have productive conversions. Bar crawls will continue whether we like them or not, but it’s long overdue that we stop dropping the bill on taxpayers.”
The councilman added that he would introduce a first reading of the ordinance at this evening’s council meeting, which is scheduled for 7 p.m. at City Hall, located at 94 Washington St.
This year’s Leprecon took place on Saturday and resulted in just four arrests, the same as last year, to the delight of many officials who once dreaded the annual St. Patrick’s Day themed bar crawl.
However, that appears to be a thing of the past, as one former City Hall official deemed this past weekends festivities “lepre-calmed.”
In one of his earliest initiatives as mayor, Ravi Bhalla introduced a Public Safety Task Force in January 2018, a group whose main goal is to curtail unruly bar crawls in the city.