Greetings SPHOA Neighbors,

As it appears the pandemic is here to stay, at least through the most popular night of the year in Sand Point, we wanted to let the neighborhood know that we, as your board, are thinking about Halloween and trying to ensure that the evening is in keeping with the Governor’s mandate for counties in Phase 2.5, and takes into account the CDC’s guidelines regarding Halloween, which can be found here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/holidays.html#halloween.

Door-to-door trick-or-treating is considered a high-risk activity and, while it is up to each individual homeowner to determine their participation, we feel it is a priority not to encourage the mass gatherings in our neighborhood that have taken place on Halloween in years prior. Homeowners can just turn off their porch lights and post a sign saying “See you next year!”, to let trick or treaters know they are not giving out candy this year. A sample poster can be found at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SEut0FqCdJRSJHoEaOf29Rm2B1tQlsjm/view?usp=sharing.

We will be posting a sign at the entrance the week before Halloween stating that we will be following the CDC guidelines and not encouraging trick or treating in the neighborhood this year. This should help mitigate any disappointment for people from outside the neighborhood arriving on Halloween to find a vast number of houses not participating. The sign at the entrance will also include a reminder for non-residents that all streets will be closed on Halloween, so please park on 75th and walk in, and do not park on our neighborhood streets that evening.

Since many of us may not be spending as much money on candy for this occasion, please consider donating your candy purchasing funds in support of the University District Food Bank. If you wish to participate, please do so here: https://www.udistrictfoodbank.org/donate/. You can indicate in the Comment section that your gift is part of the SPHOA Halloween Drive. Thank you, Bud Duncan, for the wonderful suggestion.

Of course, all of this will be dependent upon any mandate issued by the Governor, which we will abide by.

The Board meets again on October 15th to discuss this further and will post any changes to the website, as well as send out an email to keep you informed. Should you have any questions, please reach out to a board member.

Thanks, and remember, we will all get through this together!

Kind regards,

Your HOA Board