With the cleanup from Hurricane Sandy expecting to take several days, many local towns, including West Deptford and Woodbury, have postponed trick-or-treating.
Both West Deptford and Woodbury have moved trick-or-treating to Saturday, Nov. 3. This is to help concentrate efforts on storm cleanup during the week and to keep the children safe.
In a statement released by West Deptford Township on Monday afternoon, they said “Given the likelihood of power outages, the clean up from Hurricane Sandy and the best interest of the safety of children, Halloween Treat or Treating will not be held on Wednesday, October 31st.”
The start time for trick-or-treating in both towns will be at 4 p.m. Curfew has been set at a special time of 8 p.m.
Kristi Simpkins
11:21 pm on Tuesday, October 30, 2012
It's the best decision to have Halloween this coming Saturday. With the weather still being nasty & ppl having to clean up in some areas b/c of the storm, it's just better to have Halloween in a few days.
Safety is & should be everyone's concern first & foremost.
Happy Halloween everyone!
JD Ackley
10:07 am on Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Umm, who is the township to dictate when Halloween is? Halloween is October 31st, didn't know it could be changed or have a rain date. None of them work for Hallmark. Seems silly, especially since there is no large clean up or power outages. Hopefully I won't get a "trick or treating on the wrong day" ticket if i go out on Halloween with my kids.
JD Ackley
10:11 am on Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Where exactly in West Deptford is the weather nasty? It drizzled yesterday, not a drop today. I guess Saturday is more convenient for everybody. So if it snows this Christmas, should we move it to a Saturday to fit everybody's schedule?
Lauren Burgoon
10:15 am on Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Understandable that it's frustrating, but this call was made on Oct. 29, when things looked like they could have been much worse. Almost no town around here kept trick-or-treating to today because of the storm. Plus, now parents don't have to worry about rushing back from work on a weekday.
JD Ackley
10:37 am on Wednesday, October 31, 2012
That's exactly my point- the change is of convenience. The township has no authority to reschedule halloween. None what so ever. If there was a storm to contend with or there where damages to attend to that would be one thing, but there are none. Zip, zero, zilch. Common sense should prevail here, but the media has circulated that this more convenient date should be used. The government should stay out of non-government holidays. Public safety is their responsibility to ensure, not to dictate conveniences.
Lauren Burgoon
10:44 am on Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Playing devil's advocate here, the township IS the entity that sets trick-or-treating hours, plus the annual curfews that accompany it. That's nothing new. So they didn't really reschedule Halloween, but trick-or-treating.
Personally, I don't have a horse in this race. I don't have kids and if a kid came to my door in a costume today, I'd willingly give out candy.
JD Ackley
11:04 am on Wednesday, October 31, 2012
The township may be able to enforce curfews as a public safety measure but has no authority to set "trick or treating" hours as far as I can tell. This is a non-goverment holiday, and could even be viewed as a religious holiday for some. Unless they enact a temporary curfew for the non-existant damages and debris tonight I for one will be taking my kids out on this beautiful fall evening. Does anybody have an argument not to other than Saturday is most convenient? Could anybody point out a section of town affected by the storm which is not safe? Any areas still without power?
Lauren Burgoon
11:14 am on Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Hard to say on power outages - readers? PSE&G's outage reporting is 1-500 customers without power in West Deptford. That's too big of a range to be helpful in knowing how many households may be affected.
Concerned parent
1:00 pm on Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Pretty sure Gov. Christie moved it to Mon. now foe entire state.might want to double check.
Teenahope
1:04 pm on Wednesday, October 31, 2012
I know power was on and off in Kingswick and a water main went there today. If you were blessed not to be affected, then take the blessing, but I have friends who live in areas where there are lines down and ARE cleaning up and YES they are in West Deptford.
Kristi Simpkins
3:14 am on Sunday, November 18, 2012
Whose ever authority or choice it is/was to change Halloween to Monday, it was a good decision to make. For everyone. Especially for the children. That's who Halloween is for anyway.
For the towns & for the ppl who decided to go against the Governor's decision, that was on them to do so. I just feel however that was very disrespectful to go against the Governor. He made a change & everyone & every town should have went along w/ his change.
For the most part most towns had their Halloween on Monday. It actually was nice. Things turned out for the best.
For some ppl who think the decision was made for convience only IMO, I don't believe convience ever crossed anyone's mind in making the choice to move Halloween to another date. Especially for the many ppl of NJ who were extremely inconvienced from Hurricane Sandy.
It all came down to ppl's safety & well being. Especially children's safety & well being. I know some ppl who still didn't have power for Halloween.
In the end Halloween turned out to be a success. Even though it was @ a later date. No big deal. That's all that really matters.