By Michael LEVITSKY

With the recommendation last month by Los Angeles County for people not to trick-or-treat this Halloween, many are wondering how to preserve the spooky spirit in an unimaginable year that feels part of a Stephen King novel.

With no candy collecting, restricted social gatherings and no witches, ghouls or goblins roaming around the Montrose Shopping Park, the foothills could feel like a ghost town on Oct. 31.

Fear not! The Crescenta Valley Weekly, with local nonprofits, is here to shed some light into the darkness. Trying to make sure Halloween is not completely canceled this year, the Weekly is arranging a drive-by tour of the scariest and most spook-tacular houses the community has to offer.

Rachelle Miller of the CV Weekly said she and Editor-in-Chief Robin Goldsworthy devised a plan the same day the county made its announcement, feeling something had to be done to lift the spirits of local friends and neighbors.

“Anyone who knows or sees me knows Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love it more than my birthday,” said Miller. “Shortly after [the announcement] I received a text from a friend who basically asked if there was anything [we] could do. So, like witches over a cauldron, Robin and I started casting a spell and she came up with the idea of the tour.”

Beginning at sunset on Oct. 31, those in and around the community will be invited to experience Fun and Frights in the Foothills, taking part in a self-guided tour of residential neighborhoods to see houses decorated with lights and frights, skeletons and bats, scary ghosts and big black cats.

No stranger to the Halloween experience, David Krohn was one of the first names called upon to participate in the community-wide festivity. If his name sounds familiar, perhaps some will recognize his “Nightmare on Whiting Woods,” a haunted house that attracts around 700 people every year.

For the last 18 years, Krohn has been transforming his backyard into old western ghost towns, enchanted forests, and laboratories of mad scientists, to name a few. When the pandemic struck, he realized early on that his typical Halloween plan would have to change and acknowledged that he is still trying to figure out what the set theme will be.

“It’s going to look nothing like [previous years],” he said referring to his setup of the past. “That’s been kind of the hard part, what do we … We’ve been doing it a certain way for so long. But you know, this will be different, it will give a new dimension to it.”

Krohn added that some even asked if he was planning on not doing anything at all for Halloween this year, suggesting he simply take the year off.

  “Well, I don’t really want to do that,” he said, “but I also don’t want to upset people or do anything inappropriate.”

The seasoned haunted house expert said the tradition would continue next year when he approaches two decades of his yearly ritual. But for now the focus is helping Miller, Goldsworthy and the rest of the CV Weekly team to provide some sense of normalcy on All Hallow’s Eve.

“We needed a little happiness,” said Miller. “Our community is filled with families and fun-loving folks. I felt that it was important to give our kids, our neighborhoods, a way to celebrate, to have some fun, to bring some laughter and smiles. This is CV Weekly’s way of saying Happy Halloween to everyone in the foothills.”

Homeowners interested in being part of the drive-by tour can send their address to Halloween@cvweekly.com before Oct. 27. Addresses of decorated houses will be highlighted on a community map in the Oct. 29 edition of the CV Weekly.

  Michael LEVITSKY