Trick, treat becomes moveable feast

Communities change day over weather concerns

Zander Napierala, 3, left, and Jonathan Rosche, 4, participate in the preschool Halloween celebration Tuesday at Olivet Christian Nursery School in Sylvania.

The windy and rainy side ef­fects of Hur­ri­cane Sandy have prompted a num­ber of com­mu­ni­ties to toy with the some­times sen­si­tive is­sue of when to have trick-or-treat.

“It would seem to be such a lit­tle is­sue, but peo­ple take it so se­ri­ously and ev­ery­one has a strong opin­ion as to when it should be,” said North­wood City Ad­min­is­tra­tor Bob Ander­son.

North­wood was among some 18 north­west Ohio com­mu­ni­ties that de­cided to post­pone the Hal­low­een tra­di­tion un­til this week­end be­cause of the weather.

North­wood of­fi­cials con­sulted with the school su­per­in­ten­dent be­fore set­tling on 6 to 7:30 p.m. Fri­day for trick-or-treat. The un­de­feated North­wood Rangers are tak­ing on Patrick Henry High School in a Divi­sion V first-round foot­ball play­off game on Satur­day night.

“You couldn’t imag­ine the phone calls we would’ve got­ten if we would’ve said trick-or-treat was Satur­day,” Mr. Ander­son said.

Wal­bridge Vil­lage Coun­cil planned to hold a spe­cial meet­ing this morn­ing to of­fi­cially change trick-or-treat time from to­day to 6 to 7:30 p.m. Satur­day.

FULL TRICK-OR-TREAT SCHEDULE

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“By Mon­day eve­ning as you could see the weather com­ing in, it just made sense that to have the lit­tle ones out and about on Wed­nes­day eve­ning would be dan­ger­ous,” said Coun­cil­man Sue Hart-Douglas, who chairs the parks and rec­re­ation com­mit­tee. “With the rain, the wind, the cold, we thought it was bet­ter to de­lay.”

In other cit­ies, of­fi­cials talked about post­pon­ing but ul­ti­mately de­cided against it.

Toledo, Syl­va­nia, Hol­land, and Per­rys­burg were among those that will have trick-or-treat to­day, come what may.

“The weather is the weather,” said Jen Sor­gen­frei, spokes­man for Toledo Mayor Mike Bell. “We’ve never changed it in the past, and we’ve had rain and wind be­fore. What’s to say it won’t be windy or rainy on Satur­day if we post­pone it un­til then?”

In Bowl­ing Green, As­sis­tant Munic­i­pal Ad­min­is­tra­tor Lori Tret­ter also said the city planned to leave well enough alone and keep trick-or-treat from 6:30 to 8 p.m. to­day.

In 2004, then-Mayor John Quinn came un­der fire for mov­ing trick-or-treat to af­ter­noon hours on Oct. 30, which he thought would be pref­er­a­ble to the eve­ning when there were sport­ing events or to Oct. 31 which fell on a Sun­day that year. City Coun­cil ul­ti­mately de­cided to re­verse the mayor's de­ci­sion and hold trick-or-treat on Oct. 31 in the eve­ning, af­ter dark.

Ross­ford opted to move its trick-or-treat times to 6 to 7:30 p.m. Sun­day, which didn’t bother Amy Saran­tou at all. The Syl­va­nia woman said her fam­ily tra­di­tion­ally goes to her par­ents’ home in Ross­ford for a Hal­low­een feast fol­lowed by trick-or-treat­ing as a fam­ily.

“It’s all about safety and what’s best for the chil­dren,” she said. “They would be mis­er­a­ble if we get the weather they’re ex­pect­ing plus there wouldn’t be the same turn­out. ... I’m glad they changed it to be hon­est be­cause I know it wouldn’t have been as fun.”

Con­tact Jen­ni­fer Fee­han at:jfee­han@the­blade.co­mor 419-724-6129.