Freaky Frights on Forest, the two-block long Halloween decoration display that draws hundreds of visitors to North Riverside each year will be back in 2008, though village officials are preparing to crack down on parking and the length of time the display can be up.
At a meeting of village officials and some 50 residents on March 24, officials indicated that they would limit parking to residents only on the streets from the North Riverside Park Mall to Desplaines Avenue between Cermak Road and the Canadian National Railroad tracks on certain days.
Village Administrator Guy Belmonte said that the parking restrictions would likely be in force on weekends prior to Halloween and on Halloween itself. Visitors would be directed to the police department parking lot on Desplaines Avenue across the railroad tracks.
“If we concentrate parking in one area, that should relieve complaints from residents about dirty diapers, soda cans and beer bottles left on lawns,” Belmonte said.
The elaborate Halloween displays on Forest Avenue have been a tradition since the 1980s, when Mark Sajatovic began creating scenes on the lawns in the 2300 block. While those grew more complex each year and were a hit that drew many local people, the block became a full-fledged entertainment draw after 2002.
That was the year James Currie started the decoration craze on the 2200 block of Forest Avenue. Currie’s efforts went far beyond Sajatovic’s. In addition to coining the name “Freaky Frights on Forest,” Currie created a website for the event, solicited sponsors that gave the displays TV coverage and even convinced a local candy company to donate to the cause.
“It has gotten bigger than anyone ever imagined,” Belmonte said.
In recent years, the village has tried to manage traffic near Forest Avenue around Halloween by making streets one way, but that hasn’t solved the problem of backups on the residential streets.
Last year, the crowds were so thick, several neighbors told village officials they’d had enough.
In November 2007, residents gathered with officials at village hall to clear the air and ask for relief.
“I sat in my son’s car for 15 minutes before I could pull up,” Elaine Skowronski, a resident of Westover Avenue, said at last November’s meeting.
“Our streets can’t accommodate that. They’re too tiny.”
In addition to the parking restrictions, Belmonte said the village is also going to strictly enforce its trick-or-treating hours, which officially end at 7 p.m.
“Community service officers and bike officers, especially north of the tracks, will be stating that Halloween is over,” said Belmonte, adding that some of the trick-or-treating problems will probably be solved by the parking restrictions. Instead of trick-or-treating all the way back to a car three streets over, people will be funneled to the police lot.
“More traffic control and crowd control, those are good things,” said Currie, who expressed thanks to village officials for continuing to allow the Halloween displays despite protests from some neighbors.
While Currie said he has no problem with those measures by the village, he’s not thrilled with one that seeks to limit the time displays can be up to just one week.
“It takes two weeks to set this up,” said Currie. “Two weeks to set it up and one week to enjoy it is unfair. I also think it’ll cause more traffic, since it’ll bring more people in for the one week than in the three weeks it has been up before.”