WEST PITTSTON, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — It’s supposed to be a night of fun and creativity for thousands of kids and kids at heart, but there’s a Halloween hang-up over some of the plans in West Pittston.

At Wednesday night’s borough council meeting, four out of five present members voted no to shutting down certain streets on October 31.

28/22 News brought you the story of West Pittston branding itself as Halloweentown, starting a new tradition for families and closing some of the borough’s busiest streets for the fun.

In a four-to-one vote at Wednesday night’s West Pittston Borough Council Meeting, members voted no to shutting down streets for trick-or-treaters on Halloween night.

According to officials, the borough code states that in order to have a street shutdown for an event, you need to have event insurance. Council members argued that the Halloweentown Committee should have purchased the insurance and that without it, there was too big of a risk.

However many residents argue that keeping the streets open is an even bigger liability.

“Last year we had about 2500 kids and families here and it’s just literally a sea of people up and down the entire street,” said West Pittston resident Katrina M.

Katrina says as a mother, she is concerned for the safety of the children on Halloween Night without the streets being shut down.

“And even years prior, children were almost hit by vehicles and everything just because of how many people are here,” Katrina explained.

Another resident who did not want to be identified on camera expressed similar concerns.

“Makes me very worried and sad honestly I mean we do Halloween every year, we shut it down last year. It’s just a bad idea not to shut the roads down,” said an anonymous West Pittston resident.

The Halloweentown Committee President issued the following statement.

Halloweentown is a collective of residents dedicated to extending the Halloween spirit to both main and side streets while prioritizing the safety of our children. Our goal is not to draw more visitors to West Pittston, but rather to proactively ensure the security of our community. We were taken aback by the recent decision made by the council, and we hope to collaborate with them to reconsider their verdict.

Halloweentown Committee President

Halloweentown Committee Members say in 2022 when Delaware Avenue was shut down by police, they did not have an event insurance policy.

Officials say that the mayor’s office and the police department are working to shut the streets down for safety reasons, but it hasn’t been decided if this will happen.

28/22 News also reached out to the borough council but did not hear back.