A planned borough council discussion about the sometimes controversial scheduling of Trick-or-Treat in Hellertown borough was tabled Monday night after Mayor David Heintzelman requested that council wait two weeks to allow for more community members to attend and provide input.
“Let’s make it a public thing for the next meeting,” Heintzelman said to council, who agreed to table the discussion and possible vote. “Those that would like to talk about the Trick-or-Treat night–they should come to the council at the next meeting and show their interest in the decisions that the council will make that night.”
“Are we going to have that meeting at the gym?” Police Chief Robert Shupp joked, referring to how many people seem to have an opinion about when the small children should go door-to-door in costume, gathering candy.
In recent years Hellertown has experimented by holding Trick-or-Treat on a variety of weekend dates and times, including Friday evening, Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. The event is not normally held on Halloween (Oct. 31), unless the holiday happens to fall on a weekend and it coincides with the date council has chosen.
Another factor that has influenced when the borough has scheduled its Trick-or-Treat is when Bethlehem–a much larger, adjacent community–holds its Trick-or-Treat.
After some residents complained several years ago about large numbers of kids from outside the community invading their neighborhoods, the borough tried scheduling Trick-or-Treat for the Friday before Halloween from 6 to 8 p.m., in tandem with the city’s Trick-or-Treat, to help reduce the number of city kids coming into the borough to gather candy. However, that scheduling caused a conflict with the high school’s Friday night football game, which annoyed other community members.
“I think it is best that we see what the community wants,” Heintzelman said. “And we need to listen. We’re not going to please everybody. But like I was told when I took this office, 51 percent is great.”
Council’s next meeting will be held Monday, March 19 at 7 p.m. in the meeting room at Hellertown Borough Hall, 685 Main Street.
Lower Saucon Township normally schedules its Trick-or-Treat to coincide with the borough’s Trick-or-Treat. There is no rain date for Trick-or-Treat.
