Several local residents have been expressing their concerns over the past couple of weeks regarding what they see as a “strict” and “ridiculous” curfew the Town of Bonnyville has once again placed on young trick or treaters for Halloween.
Stretching back more than 10 years, the Town of Bonnyville has implemented a 7 p.m. curfew for its residents on Halloween after previously experiencing issues with youth vandalizing in the community.
Mayor of Bonnyville Gene Sobolewski told the Nouvelle last week that while he personally would not support an extension, the issue would be coming up at the Town's next council meeting Sept. 22 and he welcomed anybody with an opinion on the issue to attend.
“This is something that has been in place for a number of years now and has worked very well,” Sobolewski said. “The big concern and issue for us is the vandalism (that has gone on previously).”
Kendra House has lived in Bonnyville for the past three years and she said, while she appreciates the reasoning behind the Town initially implementing a curfew, it's time for them to “be reasonable” and extend or slightly alter the curfew so that parents are able to take their children trick or treating.
“There are a couple of different things that bother me about this curfew, the first being that I actually have to take time off work to get my kids ready to go trick or treating,” House said. “If I worked until 5 or 6 like the majority of people in this area, after I've got home, made dinner and got the kids dressed up we'd have 15, maybe 30 minutes outside, and that's the fun part for them. It's not about the candy, it's about having fun outside seeing all the different kids in their costumes.”
House said since this community is home to many that work on the oilpatch and get home later than usual, the Town should do “their part” to help ensure kids can still enjoy Halloween with their parents.
“I'm not asking for anything too drastic,” House said. “I just want to make it so that kids can be out a little later with an adult, parent or whatever, so that the whole family can experience Halloween together.”
Having lived in several communities across Alberta, House said she had never seen or heard of a Halloween curfew before.
Several residents took to social media last week to give their opinion, with people speaking out both in favour and against the curfew.
“(I) hate it because some parents, like me, work until 5:30/6 (p.m.) which doesn't give me any time to get my kids ready to go out Halloweening,” one resident said.
Another added, “It's awful! Remember the fun we had as kids? 8 or 9 would be plenty. If you're out of candy, shut out the light.”
There were several though in favour of the curfew.
“I think it's great!” one resident said. “My kids are little so they're in bed at 7 to 7:30 (p.m.) every night anyways and it's nice to not have a bunch of older kids who go out later coming to the door when we're trying to do bed time.”
Another resident, concerned with the dipping temperatures noted “walking three hours door to door in the cold is long enough for little kids.”
After initially posting a message expressing her concerns on Facebook, local resident Heather Missen submitted a letter to the editor here at the Nouvelle stating her shock that the Town has a curfew in place restricting trick or treaters.
“I'm shocked that a town with (a) rising number of young families has to abide by a 7 p.m. shutdown of festivities and trick or treating,” Missen said. “I've spoken with many friends and families who live here and they've all said the same thing, that they have a hard time with the curfew because, as we all know, walking with little kids takes a while and, because of this curfew, there's no relaxing and having dinner with family before going out.”
She added, “Most families I know go to Cold Lake because there, they don't have a curfew and they're free to do what they choose.”
Missen said she spoke to Sobolewski about potentially extending the deadline until 8 p.m. but she said that was a suggestion he wasn't particularly receptive to. She refused to acknowledge the Town's reasoning of an increased danger of youth vandalizing in the community for the curfew.
“How does extending a curfew one hour give the kids total advantage to vandalize to their hearts content? If that's something kids want to do, they're not going to let a 7 p.m. curfew stand in their way,” Missen said.
Missen said she intends on attending a future Town Council meeting to get her feelings on the issue across to council.
She added, “I strongly believe we need to stand up to someone who thinks that kids and teenagers are all alike and that they're going to vandalize property based off something that happened 15 years ago.”
