DIXFIELD — To protect children celebrating Halloween, drivers heading to Friday night’s high school playoff football game between the Dirigo Cougars and Boothbay Seahawks will be taking a detour.
Even though Dixfield holds an annual Halloween Walk and safeguards children by closing Weld Street/Route 142 to traffic, police Chief Richard A. Pickett is also urging detoured drivers to watch for children on the back streets.
The football game starts at 7 p.m. and the Halloween Walk is from 5 to 7:30 p.m.
“No one will be allowed down Weld Street from Ellis Street to the end on Main Street until the walk is over,” Pickett said.
He said the detour is to take High Street off Route 2/Main Street to the crest of the hill, where there will be a detour arrow directing traffic onto Pine Street. Drivers will follow Pine Street on a straight path to Coburn Avenue. Take a right on Coburn Avenue and follow it to the end of the road opposite the high school.
But instead of turning right to park along Weld Street, Pickett said drivers should turn left on Weld Street to park behind the school.
“They won’t get down farther than Ellis Street by Ellis’s Variety,” he said. “And nobody will be allowed up Weld Street so we don’t end up with a horror show of a bus trying to get up there with children in the street.”
Pickett said drivers taking the detour should also drive cautiously in case children take to the back streets to trick-or-treat.
“We don’t want any mishaps,” he said. “Children and parents should be wearing reflective clothing or colors and having flashlights on so as to be seen, because there will be a lot more traffic than normal due to the game.”
He said customers can still get to Towle’s Corner Store at Weld and Main streets, “but no farther.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
