Homemade Display Wins Fair Lawn's Halloween House Contest

Three houses, as chosen by Patch readers, stood out as the most outstanding.

Three terrifically terrifying Halloween houses separated themselves from the pack of 11 nominees in this year's Scariest Halloween House in Fair Lawn contest. They are, in reverse order of votes, 8 Townley Road, 1-27 Hartley Place and this year's winner, 12-10 Ellis Ave. At 12-10 Ellis Ave., artist-engineer John Bernabeo has 27 monsters that he built himself using PVC pipe and chicken wire. He began making monsters in 1995, and has been adding new ones each year. This year, he added three zombies.  Bernabeo uses his electrical and plumbing skills to place motion sensors on a number of the monsters, rigging them to jump out at trick-or-treaters (had there been any) as they walk by on the sidewalk. A chorus of monster sounds, thunder and …

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Fair Lawn Plans Monday Trunk-or-Treat at Middle Schools

Due to safety concerns, the borough will reschedule Halloween as a trunk-or-treat event, rather than a door-to-door affair throughout town.

Fair Lawn will hold a parking lot "trunk-or-treat" at Thomas Jefferson and Memorial Middle Schools on Monday evening. The decision to hold a trunk-or-treat, in which children dress up and collect candy from the trunks of parked cars, was undertaken to avoid the possible risks kids could face navigating the borough's dozens of downed wires and toppled trees while trick-or-treating door-to-door, Fair Lawn Board of Education president Michael Rosenberg said. Cars are asked to arrive between 5 p.m. and 5:30pm, and the trunk-or-treat will run from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. School Closings and Updates Roseberg said he and superintendent of schools Bruce Watson have been attending daily meetings with the borough to coordinate school closing efforts …

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Fair Lawn Will Hold Halloween as Scheduled

The borough has no plans to cancel trick-or-treating or impose a curfew for Halloween on Wednesday.

Update: Wednesday, Oct. 31 at 10 a.m.: Fair Lawn Cancels Halloween Gov. Chris Christie may have said he was considering postponing Halloween, but Fair Lawn won't be -- so get your candy ready. In spite of the large number of trees and power lines blocking streets and sidewalks around town, the borough has decided to hold the holiday as originally scheduled. There will not be a curfew. Police Chief Erik Rose said that because the majority of young children trick-or-treat with their parents during the day, he believes they'll be properly supervised and will steer clear of any potentially hazardous parts of town. If severe weather were predicted on Halloween, Rose said he may feel differently, but the forecast is clear. With school cancelled …

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Poll: How Would You Rate the Borough's Snowstorm Response?

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Fair Lawn was hit with a rare October snowstorm that knocked down trees and power lines, and made this year's Halloween a true nightmare for some residents. Dozens of power lines came down, by Fair Lawn police estimates, and between 25 and 50 percent of the town lost power. Radburn and Edison Schools were closed Monday, and the rest of the district had a delayed start. Between the police and the DPW, as many as 600 calls were fielded about downed tree branches or limbs, and cleanup is expected to take weeks. Police, fire and emergency squads were deployed in full force during the storm and employees from all of the borough's public works divisions have been out since. In September, Patch asked readers to rate the borough's response to …

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Storm-Swept Fair Lawn Streets Don't Dissuade Trick-or-Treaters

Halloween in Fair Lawn attracted some Glen Rock residents who had their own night of candy collecting cancelled

A veritable obstacle course of fallen tree branches, slippery sidewalks and melting wet slush couldn’t keep hundreds of Fair Lawn’s little princesses, superheroes and ghastly ghouls inside this Halloween, just two days after one of the most destructive October snowstorms in recent memory. Trick-or-treaters generally avoided neighborhoods still without power Monday, but residents reported that the turnout in areas minimally-affected by the storm was strong. Patch noted costumed kids going door-to-door on all the town's major thoroughfares, with especially heavy traffic around Memorial School and in Radburn. On Barry Place in Radburn, a dead end where both many of the houses and many of the trick-or-treaters were still without power Monday …

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Question of the Week

Should Halloween Be Rescheduled?

Vote or let us know your thoughts in the comments below

Saturday's snowstorm knocked down hundreds of tree branches and dozens of electrical wires across town that have resulted in power outages for thousands of residents. In Glen Rock, which has also had vast numbers of power outages due to downed wires, for safety reasons some moms are trying to coordinate an "Alternative Halloween" to be held on Friday, Nov. 4 What do you think? With power still out in thousands of home and downed wires or tree branches still a hazard on some streets and sidewalks, do you think Halloween should be postponed? Does allowing children to trick-or-treat Monday pose a hazard that the borough needs to better address? Will you allow your children to trick-or-treat today?

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Rich Seibel

4:53 pm on Monday, October 31, 2011

Still no trick or treaters and it's 4:45. Let me make sure these Snickers bars are ok   more ›

VIDEO: 10 Scariest Halloween Houses in Fair Lawn

Cornell Christianson gives a video tour of the 10 Scariest Halloween Houses in Fair Lawn.

Fair Lawn resident Cornell Christianson chooses his top 10 Scariest Halloween Houses in Fair Lawn. Did he miss any? Are there any in your neighborhood that should have made the list? Cornell's Top 10 are: Happy Halloween! - Click here to see Cornell's video on the forgotten Fair Lawn Bird Sanctuary

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