Rolling city hall an act of bravery
It’s been said you can’t fight city hall. But at least you can roll it.
Halloween pranksters accomplished the rare – and daring – act of rolling city hall Wednesday night, coming within feet of McMinnville Police Department headquarters in the process. Based on reports, the pranksters escaped just moments before officers converged on the scene, slipping into the darkness undetected.
To these late-night daredevils, I have but one thing to say: You go! That’s the spirit of Halloween I like to see. And folks have the nerve to say today’s teenagers aren’t resourceful.
Of course that’s operating under the assumption these characters are teenagers. That just might not be the case.
Word on the street yesterday was that the county was somehow involved in rolling the city. Best I can tell, this speculation arises from the long-standing feud between city and county governments, which have been known to fight over silly things like ball fields and fingerprint machines.
The name of beloved County Executive Kenneth Rogers was even said to have been mentioned in coffee shop conversation. But Rogers was quick to refute the allegations when I called yesterday.
“I’m 54 years old and I have better things to do with my life,” said Kenneth, who was obviously irritated at my suggestion. “The county executive had absolutely nothing to do with this. And besides, it was a church night.”
If there’s one thing working in Kenneth’s favor, it’s that the city has no shortage of people who would buy a ticket to watch city hall get the toilet paper treatment. I don’t know if I would go so far as to buy a ticket, but I would sure try to get in using my press credentials.
In one corner, you have city employees who are not too happy about current talks which suggest their insurance benefits may either be 1) greatly reduced or 2) offered at a significant price increase.
In another corner you have neighborhoods of brand new city residents who are none too pleased with the city’s recent annexation moves. These are residents who are now paying city property taxes, but don’t feel they are getting city services in return.
It’s at this point, with a seamless transition, I could take a stab at city services, such as police protection for example. I could jokingly poke fun at the officers who were on duty Wednesday night and allowed their very own police station to be rolled under their noses. I could point out that this has been the first time McMinnville City Hall has been rolled in some 30 years.
But I won’t travel down that road. Instead, I’ll spend my time talking about the brave band of pranksters, who even drew praise from city officials for their courage.
“It was pretty risky,” admitted City Administrator Herb Llewellyn, who said he got a laugh out of the whole situation. “But it gives whoever did it considerable bragging rights. To roll the police station and get away with it is saying something.”
An estimated 70 rolls of toilet paper were unleashed on city hall in an attack police officials speculate lasted no longer than 10 minutes. Police Captain Bryan Denton said the pranksters were lucky to get away because a call was made to police headquarters during the actual rolling.
“We had an officer sitting on Court Square when the call came in,” said Denton. “The response time was under a minute so they had to get out of there pretty quick.”
Thus far, no organization has accepted responsibility for the city hall caper. The only question that remains is will anyone have the guts to try it on Halloween night?
(James Clark is editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at standard@blomand.net.)