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Halloweentown: No local virus outbreaks
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Jeremy C. Ruark / The Chronicle
This is one of the centerpiece artwork placed along the Columbia River in St. Helens during Halloweentown.
Originally published in The Chronicle Vol. 138 December 30, 2020 MONIQUE MERRILL chronicle2@countrymedia.net JEREMY C. RUARK jruark@countrymedia.net
The annual Spirit of Halloweentown came and went in St. Helens this year, almost like any other. Modifications were made to the event to comply with state pandemic restrictions in place at the time, including capping attendance at 250 people. Despite concerns from county leaders about the safety of hosting an event to draw guests from around the country, it went smoothly without any outbreaks, event contractor Tina Curry said. “We were pleased to learn that we had no local citizen cases in Columbia County that were traced back to Halloweentown due to our implementation of guidelines, PPE (personal protection equipment) and staffing controls,” Curry said. Health department staff were on-scene at the event every weekend and COVID-19 contact tracers asked people with positive test results if they had been at the event, according to Curry. “We had out-of-town people actually call and cancel
because they thought they might have had contact with someone and reschedule their dates,” she said. “The out-oftown guests seemed respectful of our guidelines and rules inside the area. Of course, if they were flying they already had some hoops they had to jump through.” As for next year, Curry said planning is already underway even with so many uncertainties about what restrictions may be in place by next October. “At this point we don’t know how, or if, changes will be made for 2021 due to COVID-19 and the ever-changing landscape,” she said. “We’re already planning for next year while keeping in mind that we may have to implement similar operational systems to meet any criteria and control numbers again.” One of the more pandemicfriendly aspects of this year’s event was the livestream of a Halloween-night performance in St. Helens. Curry said a few thousand people have viewed the video so far but she plans to edit it and release it for future use. “We’ll hope to have between 20,000 to 30,000 views before next year with the plan for its subsequent use in place,” she said. City centerpiece Halloween has been a major city celebration and
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centerpiece for decades and includes an annual children’s parade featuring costumed kids; trick-or-treating at the local businesses’ front doors and people making creative scarecrows and hanging their displays all around St. Helens. This year’s Halloweentown reflected the pandemic-related health and safety state guidelines. While Halloweentown is designed for fun and community engagement, it also provides a significant boost to the city’s economy, according to St. Helens City Administrator John Walsh. “In many ways the event has transformed St. Helens from a fading mill town to a community recognized internationally as a top destination for Halloween activities,” Walsh told The Chronicle in August. “Halloweentown has created a sense of community identity and brought an economic boost to the region. The event draws tens of thousands of visitors each year throughout the month of October which stay in hotels, eat at local restaurants, shop at local merchants and experience all that St. Helens has to offer.” By the numbers In an interview with The Chronicle from August, Curry said Halloweentown generates well over a million dollars annually.
“This is direct to businesses and merchant dollars,” Curry said. In addition, the city of St. Helens and sponsors have received an estimated value of several million dollars in media reach through magazine, newspaper, radio and social media articles and tourismrelated articles, according to Curry. “We’ve had almost one million people visit our discovercolumbiacounty.com site alone,” she said. “We’ve had individual posts that garner more than 24 million views. If you have to put an exact number to this it’s very difficult but our audits show very high results.” Halloweentown poll In September, The Chronicle asked print and online readers for their opinion about Halloweentown 2020. We asked: Should the city of St. Helens hold the Spirit of Halloweentown this year? In response, we received 295 yes votes to 526 no votes. In early September, The Chronicle invited the city to write a guest column following community concerns about Halloweentown being held during a pandemic. Mayor Rick Scholl responded by writing that the city was aware that some community members and businesses have raised con-
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cerns regarding the safety of the Spirit of Halloweentown festival this year in light of COVID-19. “The safety of our community is always the city’s number one priority and any decisions made by the City Council and city staff are done with the community’s best interests in mind,” Scholl wrote. The City Council held many lengthy discussions to determine whether or not the Spirit of Halloweentown festival would be held this year, according to Scholl, who added that due to the festival’s extreme popularity over the last several years, the city anticipate that visitors will travel to St. Helens in October regardless of the festival being cancelled or not. “Rather than taking a reactive approach with no plan in place to accommodate these visitors, the city has worked hard to create a plan that provides a safe environment for both our community and visitors,” Scholl wrote. “This plan also creates a valuable opportunity for local businesses to see increased economic activity in this time when many have seen drastically reduced revenue due to the pandemic.” Join the conversation. Post your thoughts about Halloween 2020 with this story at thechronicleonline.com.