BUTTE — Even though St. Patrick’s Day falls on a Wednesday this year and there’s a pandemic, it’s still Butte’s favorite holiday and police expect anything could happen.
“We expect to see some fights, some disturbance type issues; we’ll be out patrolling for DUIs as well,” said Sheriff Ed Lester.
Police will have extra foot patrols walking the streets of Uptown making sure things don’t get too out of hand. And while officers won’t be enforcing mask mandates, they will be encouraging revelers to try to social distance as much as possible and avoid overcrowding the bars.
“We’ll encourage people to go in the bar, get their drinks, come out on the sidewalk and be outside as much as possible, because that’s a much safer place than it is inside,” said Lester.
The sheriff understands people are going to want to cut loose this St. Patrick’s Day, but he still warns people to try to stay safe so we can get back to normal sooner.
“We are at a point right now were we can kind of see the goal line. We can have a normal summer if we don’t do anything stupid before we get to the goal line. If we fumble the ball here and have some kind of a spike in infections then we’re going to set ourselves back,” said Lester.
The sheriff said police will assist any bars if they want help removing customers if bars become too crowded.
