Local Children Can Trick-or-Treat at Salad Shack Monday

West Long Branch resident Traci Foggia is doing her best to bring Halloween trick-or-treating back to local children.

Foggia is the owner of Salad Shack at 138 Myrtle Ave., Long Branch, and said her restaurant staff will be handing out candy to children from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. today.

Gov. Chris Christie officially postponed Halloween from Oct. 31 to today, Nov. 5, but several local police departments are discouraging residents from going door to door for trick-or-treating.

Foggia said she wanted to give local children a chance to experience some form of trick-or-treating this week.

"It will be nice to see their smiles after all this tragedy," Foggia said. "It's not the same, but they still want to put on their costumes and get candy."

She said the parking lot will be roped off and children can enjoy candy, donuts and apple cider.

West Long Branch Police Capt. Larry Mihlon said children should not go door to door today.

"Power lines are still down," Capt. Mihlon said on the West Long Branch Police Facebook page. "Sidewalks are still dangerous from fallen branches. Many people are very much on edge with the power outages and gas lines. Even if the State says you can, it's still a very bad idea this year. It's just not safe enough."

Police say the borough does not have the resources to host any event on a community basis today and that the first aid squad building, the community center, Shore Regional High School and other similar areas "would not be available due to the ongoing nature of crisis management."

"It would have to be privately run and managed in such a way to minimize travel and public gathering (only for safety reasons)," a message on the police's Facebook page states.