Andover Reschedules Trick-Or-Treat To Sunday

ANDOVER, MA -- The Town of Andover, which had already said it would not hold trick-or-treating Tuesday night as cleanup from the storm continued, has said it will now hold trick-or-treating on Sunday night between 4 and 7 pm.

"Ensuring the safety of our community is our number one priority following Sunday night's storm," Town Manager Andrew Flanagan said. "Given that thousands of residents are still without power and that crews are still working on cleanup efforts, we felt it would be best to postpone trick-or-treating until this weekend."

Andover canceled school for a second straight day Tuesday and more than 5,600 customers remained without power at 1:30 pm Tuesday afternoon. National Grid said it was working on repairing transmission lines before moving on to outages on delivery lines, and that the repair of damage from the overnight wind storm could take several days.

The town offered the following Halloween safety tips:

Children should:

• Only approach well-lit houses and always travel in small groups
• Bring treats home before eating them so parents can inspect them
• Wear clothing that is bright, reflective and flame retardant
• Use flashlights for guidance on sidewalks, walkways and when crossing the street
• Make sure masks have eye-holes large enough to see any tripping hazards or oncoming traffic, and mouth openings large enough to breathe easily
• Practice safe street-crossing by using crosswalks and walk signals
• Walk and don’t run from house to house
• Wear sturdy shoes and temperature appropriate clothing under costumes
• Never accept rides from strangers

Parents and guardians should:

• Supervise their children
• Establish a designated curfew for older children
• Make sure children are wearing safe costumes that fit well and don’t drag on the ground
• Apply reflective tape to your child’s arms, legs and treat bags
• Assure costume accessories such as swords and other pointed objects are made with soft and safe materials
• If driving children between houses and neighborhoods, have them get out of cars on the curbside, not on the traffic side.

Homeowners should:

• Keep inside and outside lights on during trick-or-treat hours
• Avoid placing lit candles and jack-o-lanterns on doorsteps and walkways where costumes could brush against them and cause burns or fire
• Only hand out candy that is packaged and wrapped
• Avoid handing out small toys that could cause choking or lead poisoning for small children

Additionally, any suspicious person or vehicle should immediately be reported to Andover Police at 978-475-0411 or by dialing 911.

Patch file photo.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).