The Town of Hamlet is moving ahead with trick-or-treating this year. The town council Wednesday agreed to set trick-or-treat hours for Saturday, October 31 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
Council President Dave Kesvormas said that it’s really important for a lot of the kids in town. “The board can encourage social distancing and wearing masks and not making hand-to-hand contact, I guess,” Kesvormas said. “We’ll do whatever we’ve got to do to be within compliance with the state or whatever or with the health department. I don’t see it as an issue. There’s not 200 people flocking on anybody’s lawn. We’ve certainly got to start opening things up and get a little normalcy back.”
New guidance from the CDC this week listed traditional trick-or-treating as a “higher risk activity” that should be avoided. State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box said Wednesday that she plans to give more guidance of her own next week, but found the CDC recommendations to be helpful.
“What they do is they break that down into what are the very low risk activities you could do as a family, the more moderate risk activities, and the higher risk activities,” Box explained. “And therefore, every family can decide, based on who’s living at home with them and the health of the individuals that live in their home, as long as you’re looking at what your own local health, public health, and elected officials are saying about it. You also want to look at the spread in your own community.”
The Town of Winamac has already canceled traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating this year, at the recommendation of the Pulaski County Health Department. The Hamlet Town Council pointed out that residents there can always choose not to take part, by leaving their porch lights off. Meanwhile, Hamlet’s next town-wide yard sale is scheduled for this Friday and Saturday.
