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Discussion: Consideration of establishing an official City-wide date for Halloween trick or treat.
Executive Summary: Traditionally, the City of Hudson has not established an official date for City-wide Halloween Trick or Treating. Last year, when Hurricane Sandy barreled onto the East Coast, Hudson, as well as cities across Northeast Ohio, braced for the storm to hit on Halloween. Due to safety concerns, many cities cancelled their scheduled Trick or Treating, and Hudson residents looked to the City Administration to cancel and reschedule the event as well. Since the City does not establish an official City-wide Trick or Treat date, and neighborhoods and homeowners’ associations do not provide us with information about their scheduled dates/times, we could not “cancel or reschedule” an event that was not officially set, causing much confusion among citizens, as well as safety concerns.
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Legislative History
None.
Purpose & Explanation
In the past, the date for Trick or Treating in Hudson has been left up to the individual homeowners’ associations and neighborhoods. We are one of only a few cities in Northeast Ohio that does not set an official date. Over the past six years we have received an increasing number of phone calls from residents asking why we don’t have an official date. Those living in areas without homeowners’ associations do not know when to send their kids out or to hand out candy. Until last year, other than complaints, there has never been a problem.
Last year, due to the pending storm, we received hundreds of calls from residents asking if we were canceling Trick or Treating and when it would be rescheduled. While we did send out an emergency alert asking that people stay indoors on Halloween as a safety precaution, we told residents to check with their homeowners’ associations for a rescheduled date. Most were very unhappy that we could not officially reschedule the event.
In addition, there was confusion within homeowners’ ass...
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