By James Rincon

Pflag Reporter

Princesses and superheroes overran Main Street on Monday night as the Pflugerville Chamber of Commerce hosted the 15th annual Halloween on Main Street Food Drive in downtown Pflugerville.

Pflugerville police blocked off the road’s 100 and 200 blocks to let chamber businesses offer a safe alternative to door-to-door trick-or-treating.

“It’s the 15th year we’ve done this. It’s a way for people to come to the downtown business community and a way for our businesses to support the community as a whole,” Chamber President and CEO Patricia Gervan-Brown said. “Only Chamber investors participate in this event, and it’s just a great way for people to get out of their homes and get to know their business community.”

Hundreds of families with children of all ages visited booths set up by 25 local businesses, where they could play games, hoard candy and show off their costumes without fear of passing cars.

“Shutting the street down the way we do keeps kids off of the street and it makes it to where they have a good, safe environment,” PPD Lt. Darryl Wilkes said. “The businesses get involved in it by providing the candy, so it makes it better than going door-to-door.

“It avoids traffic tie-ups. It avoids them coming into contact with traffic. It’s a very concentrated area, making it much easier for us to patrol and so it’s a safer environment through that.”

Police Chief Chuck Hooker and Assistant Chief Jim McLean helped patrol the candy stands along with a handful of PPD officers.

Travis County Constable Office Precinct 2 set up a booth to get face time with residents, and Precinct 2 Constable Adan Ballesteros handed out sweets to costume-clad kids.

Wilkes said police traditionally see an uptick in petty crime on Halloween night, so PPD ramps up its patrol units as a preventative measure.

“We do step up patrols on that night, so we’ll have extra officers out. Vandalism’s the main thing we watch for,” Wilkes said. “It’s become a tradition – they go out and throw eggs, or do things like that, so we do specific patrols and to watch for kids and watch over areas they’d be doing it.”

Gatlinburg neighborhood resident Anthony Salerno and his three children Ella, Owen and Alex came out to Halloween on Main Street for the fourth year in a row. He said he enjoys the event but still likes to knock on his neighbors doors as well.

“What I like about this event is that the whole community comes together to celebrate, whereas trick-or-treating is usually just going house to house, this is a whole community event,” Salerno said. “After this we go out trick-or-treating in the neighborhood for a little while, then we go home and watch a scary movie.”

Ernie and Lisa Jost said they feel safer knowing their children Madison and Will can celebrate the holiday without worrying about strangers.

“It’s safe. You don’t have to worry. You know it’s all the businesses from your community and you get to see your friends too,” Ernie Jost said.

Trick-or-treaters gave a nonperishable food donation for admission to the event, all of which will go to Storehouse Mission food bank in Pflugerville.