The Rochester City Council will decide on Oct. 12 if it will provide the schedule for trick-or-treating and use its resources to celebrate Halloween, like the police siren starting and ending the event, said Rochester Mayor Stuart Bikson.
As of Sept. 21, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed trick-or-treating, where treats are handed out to children, as a “higher risk activity.”
“Everyone has to make their own decisions, but I do not think people should be treating Halloween the same as in the past,” said Bikson.
Canceled city events
Although the holiday is not a city event, Rochester’s events scheduled before Halloween were canceled.
“There was an event downtown where the kids could go around to businesses and trick or treat and things, and we have canceled that and all the Christmas stuff we are known for,” said Bikson.
Rochester resident, Anthony Mrocko, expressed how he felt about the CDC guidelines and Halloween this year.
“It makes me sad for children who looked forward to the city events and trick-or-treating this year,” said Mrocko. “Trick-or-treating at downtown businesses was something I did with my family every year growing up. It’s upsetting that the Coronavirus has had such an impact.”
The struggle for what’s right
The city has struggled with trying to do what is best for the city while taking into account residents’, said Bikson.
“You really have to be a leader because everybody just wants their life back,” Bikson said. “There is a constant battle of ‘well let’s just do this’ or ‘let’s just not worry about it’, and I’ve just had to be vigilant because people want it to be over and to forget about it and you can’t really do that.”