Oshkosh Police officers keep students off the
sidewalk lining the 700 block of Wisconsin Street Friday as
Megan Chard celebrates the approaching semester finale. (Photo
by Brett Schenning, Assistant Photo
Editor) |
This year’s Wisconsin Daze celebration saw an increase in police
patrol on Wisconsin Street and although some violations were
reported, the Oshkosh Police Department said this year’s celebration
was more orderly than last year.
The celebration, on the
second Friday before spring graduation, started last Friday at noon
and ended around 10 p.m. Most parties were hosted by graduating
UW-Oshkosh students living on the 700 block of Wisconsin
Street.
Oshkosh Police Chief David Erickson said the officers
focused on keeping people out of the street, congregating on the
sidewalks and reducing the number of people who attended the
parties. The parties were permitted as long as beer sales and
underage drinking was not present.
“I think the strong police
presence kept the number of underage drinkers away from the area,”
Erickson said. “The street and sidewalk violations weren’t as bad
this year because we had enough police patrolling the
area.”
Forty-seven violations were reported during this
year’s celebration. Twenty-nine of those include city ordinance
violations — about six for prohibited crossing of the street and
about 35 were alcohol related violations (underage drinking, open
intoxicants on the street or sidewalk, possession of alcohol by a
minor and disorderly conduct).
Two violations included the
sale of alcohol without a license and the remaining 16 are still
under investigation.
The tenants of 719 Wisconsin St.
encountered some problems with both their landlord and the
police.
“Officially, we were evicted because we had kegs of
beer on our porch and that was against the lease that we signed,”
said Jim Hishmeh, 23. “(Our landlord) happened to drive by that day
and saw the kegs on our porch and immediately evicted
us.”
Mike Mokler, owner of Mokler Properties, said the
tenants knew they were in violation of their lease.
“I found
out about it because they called earlier on Friday to see what the
stipulations were in the lease concerning kegs on the premises,”
Mokler said. “We told them it would be a violation of their lease,
but they went ahead and did it anyway.”
Mokler said the
tenants received a 14-day eviction notice when he realized the lease
was being violated.
The tenants will have to move out within
the 14-day period or will be forced out by the combined efforts of
Mokler Properties and the sheriff’s department.
Mokler said
this stipulation is present in all leases because they want to avoid
larger house parties and the safety concerns that arise with those
parties.
The same tenants were also referred to the Winnebago
County District Attorney for operating an illegal tavern when an
undercover police officer entered the party and was charged
$5.
“We charged $5 to everyone who entered the party and
stated it was for (stereo) music,” Hishmeh said. “We carded
everyone, no one got hurt, all the litter was cleaned up by noon the
next day and no one got busted at our place for underage drinking
from what I understand.”
The case is still under
investigation, but Erickson said music was being used as a reason to
sell beer.
“They weren’t selling music, they were selling
beer and that doesn’t stand with state statutes,” Erickson
said.
Tenants of 731 Wisconsin St. provided the live music of
Jason Moon and Jason Lipsky.
“The cops said we did a good job
because we kept the party in the backyard and we had enough garbage
cans to take care of all the litter,” said senior Joe Herkowski, 22.
“The only problems we encountered were the banners we had on the
house celebrating the graduation of one of my roommates and
Wisconsin Daze, and they just made us take them
down.”
Herkowski said 100 to 150 cans of food were collected
for Father Carr’s Food Pantry at the door and money was raised for
Mother’s Against Drunk Driving through a brat sale.
“We also
had wristbands and a lot of friends checking ID cards, so we didn’t
allow any underage drinkers in,” Herkowski said.
The live
music started at 4:30 p.m. and was permitted to continue by police
until 10 p.m.
Jason Jungwirth, manager of Jordy’s Beverage
Mart on 9th Avenue, said 118 barrels of beer were supplied to about
eight to 10 houses on Wisconsin Street.
“We checked all ID
cards and copied down their names, addresses, telephone numbers and
date of birth for our records,” Jungwirth said. “We do provide
wristbands to people who come to buy beer. A couple of houses
requested them but not all of them.”
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