This Thursday, families throughout your jurisdiction will be dealing with more than their normal load as they prepare their final decorations and ready themselves to take their children trick-or-treating.  I have put together the following list of resources that can help your community have a safe, incident-free and fun Halloween this year.

• In "Halloween Safety," PM Magazine offers parents and community leaders some tips that can help them stay safe on Halloween.
• Use the model of Olathe, Kansas, and the occasion of Halloween to kick off a holiday pet drive in your local animal shelter.
• “Making the Most of Your Local Haunts” highlights how towns across the country celebrate some of their storied haunted attractions.
• In a response to concerns about pedestrian safety on Halloween night, Orono, Maine established the Green Halloween House of Safety. Read here about the ICMA Public Safety Excellence Award winning project.
• In a recent member-prompted discussion about engaging your community’s employees, Gary Huff offers that a great way to keep up morale, and to generate a bunch of pictures for social media, is to have an employee Halloween Costume Contest.
• WikiHow offers a light-hearted tutorial on removing toilet paper from a "TP’d" house.

Share these stories with your staff to ensure that your community has a safe and memorable Halloween, and be sure to share your jurisdiction’s Halloween success stories on the Knowledge Network.

Aloha,

James Davidson

ICMA's Knowledge Network Intern

jdavidson@icma.org