Trick-or-treating, Halloween events planned for Saturday

Many Halloween activities have been cancelled this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but trick-or-treating in Poplar Bluff is not one of them.

“The city administration and the city council have not made any decision to stop people from trick-or-treating, and we have no plans to,” said City Manager Matt Winters.

For anyone trick-or-treating, Winters urged some “general safety precautions,” such as carrying a flashlight, wearing reflective clothing and staying out of the street.

In this time of the pandemic, Winters reminded those trick-or-treating it is “most important” for them to practice social distancing and continue “with the hygiene efforts that we’ve been doing for months now.”

The Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce had planned to hold Halloweenfest on Saturday, but some activities, such as the trunk-or-treat on the Black River Coliseum parking lot, have been cancelled.

“We just couldn’t get enough people to register,” said Jeannette Townsend, the chamber’s office manager. “We had tons of interest, (people) wanting to come out; we just didn’t get enough people to register to have a trunk.”

Some aspects of the Halloweenfest, Townsend said, still are happening.

The Poplar Bluff Parks and Recreation still will host a dog and cat Halloween costume contest and Haffy’s Sports Bar and Grill will have a Halloween party Saturday, Townsend said.

The dog and cat Halloween costume contest will be from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Downtown Dog Park. First-, second- and third-place prizes will be awarded for the best costumes for dogs and cats.

The contest, according to Parks Director Lanny Corcimiglia, is a “brand new thing” for his department.

Murray Hammond, the department’s horticulturist, and Chris Waite, his administrative assistant, put together a pet show for the recent Iron Horse Festival, Corcimiglia said.

“They probably ended up with 10 to 15, maybe 15 to 20 pets,” Corcimiglia said. “They gave the awards to the different pets.”

When approached by chamber officials about Halloweenfest, “we thought why don’t we do a contest for dogs and cats, a costume contest,” said Corcimiglia, who credited Hammond and Waite with the idea. “We had some stuff left over that was donated to us for the pet show earlier; we’ll just use that for prizes.”

Corcimiglia said there also will be “some other goodies as well for the kids and adults as far as candy and stuff like that. … I guess, technically, the dogs and cats are trick-or-treating, getting it for their owners.”

Knowing what Hammond and Waite have planned, Corcimiglia anticipates it will be a neat event.

“The other key is just to get some folks out and have them bring (their pets) down,” Corcimiglia said. “It’s just fun. Getting people out and about, that’s what we are trying to do.”

As a first-time event, “whether you get five or 50 people there” doesn’t matter, Corcimiglia said. “It’s just something that will grow as time goes on. We’ll try to have it again and again if we can.”