Reluctant Council OKs event during pandemic

Port Washington aldermen on Tuesday universally expressed concern about the risk of holding trick or treat in the midst of a pandemic and in a state that is a hot spot for the disease, but ultimately decided not to cancel the annual event for one practical reason — people will take their children out to collect candy no matter what the city does.

“I think we might as well allow it and use this as an opportunity to set some guidelines,” Ald. Pat Tearney said. “Maybe we’ll reach some people.”

Trick or treat will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, in compliance with a policy set last year to hold the event during those hours on the Saturday closest to Halloween.

As they discussed the issue, aldermen were vocal about the difficult struggle they had in weighing the issues.

“I’ve had one leg on each side of the fence trying to decide the right thing to do,” Ald. Deb Postl said.

“It’s very, very scary. The number of cases, especially in Wisconsin, which is a hot spot, is frightening.”

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has issued some common-sense recommendations, such as leaving individual grab bags of treats outside for children to pick up instead of distributing candy

But ultimately, Postl said, people have a choice whether to participate and parents can decide how to handle the situation, and so she supported allowing trick or treat.

“For those people who don’t want to participate, don’t turn your porch light on,” Postl said.

City Administrator Tony Brown noted that Port is joining virtually every other Ozaukee County community in holding trick or treat. 

The villages of Belgium, Fredonia, Grafton, Saukville and Thiensville, as well as the cities of Cedarburg and Mequon and Town of Grafton, are all holding trick or treat, he said.

Meaghan Hoffmann, 408 Sunrise Dr., who asked aldermen last month to allow trick or treat, told the Common Council that when she returned home from that meeting “my Facebook page had blown up.”

People were announcing plans to trick or treat regardless what the council did, she said.

“It solidified in my mind that ... there is going to be trick or treating on Oct. 31,” she said. 

Not setting the day and time won’t deter people, Hoffmann said, it will just send the message that people can go out whenever they want.

“This is really what I think government is supposed to do,” she said, while parents should worry about such things as using sanitizer between houses and ensuring the candy is safe.

Trick or treat, she noted, is an outdoor activity where children wear masks and generally go out with their families. Social distancing is easy.

Scout Maxwell Behrndt, 603 W. Pierre La., concurred.

“If adults can go to McDonald’s to get food, why can’t a kid go to a door to get candy?” he asked aldermen. “Trick or treat is the highlight of a kid’s year.”

Trick or treat should be the individual’s decision, he said, adding no one is obliged to participate.

“Think back to when you were a kid,” he said. “Would you want to miss trick or treat?”

But Phil Bruno, who lives on West Walters St., said he is concerned that it isn’t just city residents who participate in trick or treat.

“We have people coming in by the vanloads,” he said. “We get people from all over. I think it (trick or treat hours) is going to bring more people into the city than we need.”

Ald. Dan Benning said he can’t support holding trick or treat given the pandemic. 

“I’m sorry. I don’t feel in good conscience I can endorse trick or treat in the City of Port Washington this year,” he said, noting he can’t guarantee that the houses children visit will be safe or that the children approaching residents won’t be ill. 

“It’s a pandemic that’s out of control,” he said.

While many people will take precautions, wearing masks, social distancing and trick or treating with family members, Benning noted that not everyone follows the rules, including the many people he has seen going into bars without masks.

Ald. Paul Neumyer concurred, saying, “Where we’re at with the pandemic, the numbers aren’t getting better. I just don’t think we can approve it.”

Ald. Mike Gasper, who has had Covid-19 — “I had it mild, and it was the worst flu I’ve ever had,” he said — noted that people will trick or treat whether the city endorses the activity or not.

“I think it’s a bad idea,” he said. “There will be kids out there who are sick. But whatever way we vote, I don’t think it’s going to change anything. People are going to do it anyway.”

  Aldermen agreed to post a link to Department of Health recommendations on the city’s website to help guide people.