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Breckenridge parade won’t be sanitized

Jim PokrandtSummit correspondent

BRECKENRIDGE – The Ullr Fest parade, Breckenridge’s bad-boy and bad-girl event in January, is just fine as far as town council members are concerned and not due for a P.C. injection.That’s P.C., as in politically correct.They like the way town police handle the event and they want the “bad apples” who take their behavior overboard to be busted.”I don’t want to suck the soul out of this thing,” Councilmember Jeffrey Bergeron said. “We sanitize a lot of things around here. This is one thing we should not sanitize,” agreed Councilmember Rob Millisor.”I don’t see the parade as being Sodom and Gomorrah,” Bergeron added.It may not be as wicked and depraved as Sodom and Gomorrah, but everybody agrees the Ullr parade has a raw edge fueled by skin, High Country humor and booze.That’s the parade’s attraction and that’s what brings out the people to jam Breckenridge’s Main Street.”Traditionally the parade is off color and a little bit raw; that’s what’s it’s always been,” Assistant Police Chief David Miller said. “But we don’t want to be the culture police and the fashion police.”The worry, according to Miller and Chief Rick Holman, is that more of the adults are bringing children to the event.Miller said one incident in January got him thinking.As the ever-present candy toss from float to crowd was under way, a child scrambled onto the street just as a man exposed himself. The flasher got busted.”We got a bad feeling about what we are doing,” Miller said.The Ullr discussion arose at a recent town council retreat.Holman pointed out the alcohol-fueling of the event and the fact police turn a blind eye for three hours to violations of the town’s open container law.