PIMA — Pima is the place to be when it comes to Halloween in the Gila Valley.
The Pima Town Council recently received an update from the Eastern Arizona Museum and Historical Society, and the Graham County Chamber of Commerce about plans for Halloween.
Clint Woods said the museum is ready to host its fourth annual haunted house.
“We’ve been pretty successful with it, and we’re trying to make it grow into something that, not just the Pima community together, but the whole Gila Valley,” Woods said, adding that the fund-raising event has drawn an average of 1,500 people per season.
He said the haunted house will run for two hours each day, Oct. 27-29 and Oct. 31. He also said that the paranormal investigators will not be participating this year.
The Town Council voted unanimously to give the museum $1,500 — $500 for the haunted house event and $1,000 to purchase food for the museum’s annual Heritage Days celebration. In return, the town will be given 100 haunted house tickets to be given away through the library or by police officers during positive interactions with area youths.
Also at the Town Council meeting, Graham County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Vance Bryce said the chamber will not be putting on its proposed Pima Palooza Halloween weekend, instead putting all those resources to helping the Pima Parent-Teacher Organization grow its Halloween Carnival.
“We want to be supporting whatever is going on, not implementing something on top of, or on the side of, anything. We want to be enmeshed in with whatever’s going on. Because Halloween is working in Pima, that’s all we know,” Bryce said. “So we want to be a part of that and add some value to it.”
The PTO Halloween Carnival will now include a cornhole tournament, a costume contest and live music courtesy of the Chamber, in addition to the PTO established candy giveaways and games.
The Town Council also directed staff to work with the PTO and Chamber to incorporate the town’s Halloween Trunk or Treat event into the carnival.
The result will be expansion of the carnival across the high school football field and into the softball field.
