Junior David Erdly said he wanted to do something few people he knew did before - organize a legal block party and hog roast, which he planned to have Saturday.
Erdly planned to have a party in late September and received legal clearance from city officials, but he decided to postpone the event.
After going through the proper channels to block off a street and obtain liability insurance, a noise ordinance exemption for the new date, Erdly said, the Indiana State Excise Police denied him the final permit he needed, which would allow him to serve alcohol.
Erdly said excise police gave him a temporary beer and wine permit, which was set for an earlier date he had requested, but had to postpone. The police denied Erdly a permit when he filed a second application for a new date.
Lt. John Folk of the excise police said the department denied Erdly the permit after Gene Burton, Ball State University director of public safety, contacted the excise police with concerns about the party.
Folk said he considered Burton's concerns and decided to deny Erdly the alcohol permit because there would not be enough police officers available for security.
Burton said the police were concerned about the date of the party because it was the weekend before Halloween,
"All I did was send a letter of conern," Burton said. "We didn't have a problem with the first date. The timing was the issue."
Erdly said he contacted the Muncie Fire Department and the Muncie and Ball State police departments in late August for permission to have the event.
Erdly said the city granted him permission to have the block party Sept. 22 with a rain date of Oct. 20, but a death in his family changed his plans.
"The first time I tried to get this to go through, I had an uncle die," he said. "Trying to get this party done before Sept. 22 was too soon."
After his uncle's death, Erdly decided to postpone the block party until its rain date, but later changed his mind, he said.
"I looked at my calendar and said 'That's Fall Break; I'm not going to make enough to pay for this,'" he said. "I wanted to push back the date to Oct. 27."
Erdly said he attended the Muncie Board of Public Works and Safety meeting for a second time on Oct. 10 to ask permission to have the block party on Oct. 27.
According to the minutes from the meeting, Erdly presented the board with a document signed by Burton, Fire Chief Alan Richards and Capt. Deb Davis of the Muncie Police Department granting Erdly permission to close Dill Street on Sept. 22.
Erdly presented the board with a petition with signatures from his neighbors approving the party. Erdly also presented documentation from the excise police granting him an alcohol permit for Sept. 22, according to the minutes.
The board granted Erdly permission to close Dill Street and a noise ordinance exemption between the hours of noon and 9 p.m. for Oct. 27, according to the minutes.
Board President Elizabeth DeVoe said Erdly did everything necessary to have the block party on Oct. 27.
"He had a lot of things he had accomplished," DeVoe said. "He was very diligent about getting this done. He had taken care of everything that was required as far as the Board of Works was concerned for the street closing."
According to the minutes, the meeting adjourned, but three minutes later, Capt. Davis entered the meeting on behalf of the Ball State police. Davis said Erdly had not contacted Ball State police about changing the date for the block party.
DeVoe asked Davis to contact Ball State police and ask if the department would consider approving the event on the condition that the ending time would change from 9 p.m. to 8 p.m. Davis left the meeting briefly to call the Ball State police and returned and said the department accepted, according to the minutes.
Erdly said he mailed an application for the alcohol permit on Oct. 9 and excise police contacted him on Oct. 11 rejecting his request for a new alcohol permit.
"At this point I'm freaking out," Erdly said. "I had already gotten everything I needed to do at this point. I'm thinking 'What am I going to do? I can't get my money back.'"
Erdly said he met with Burton and Sgt. Rhonda Clark of the Ball State police to discuss the possiblity of Burton retracting his letter to the excise police.
Burton and Clark told Erdly to speak with Kay Bales, vice president of student affairs, and Alan Hargrave, associate vice president of student affairs, Erdly said.
Hargrave said he and Bales met with Erdly to discuss the university's reasons for not wanting the block party.
"We found out he had applied for an excise permit," Hargrave said. "On his street closure, there was no mention of selling alcohol. Later we learned that he wanted to have it Halloween weekend, which is a concern of ours. That is a busy weekend already."
Ball State police would not staff the block party because it is not a university event, Hargrave said.
Erdly said he recruited bouncers from Dill Streat Bar & Grill and The Chug to work security at the party.
Erdly, who is a bartender at Dill Street, said with his experience serving alcohol and bouncers who could control binge drinking and disorderly conduct, he would have been able to keep the event in order.
Hargrave said they also discussed the possibility of not serving alcohol at the block party. Ball State would have then allowed Erdly to have the party if that happened, Hargrave said.
Erdly said he wanted to serve alcohol because it would help him raise money to pay for the event.
"I told them that I realized alcohol didn't need to be involved," he said. "At the same time, there was no way for me to make my money back. That's an attention getter - 'There's going to be alcohol.' Then people will come. Nobody's going to pay $5 just to eat a pig and listen to a band they never heard of."
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