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VALLEY — Valley Parks and Recreation will be playing host to a fall festival this year, but it will be a good bit different from previous Halloween season events. It will be taking place between the hours of 6 and 8 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Oct. 31.

It will be a drive-through event in the parking lot at Valley Sportsplex. Vendors will be stationed around the parking lot, and a line of vehicles will be driving through. Children and their parents or adult guardians won’t have to leave their cars. They will drive past the vendor stations, where children will receive bags of candy while seated in their car.

“We want to have a fall festival like we usually do at this time of the year,” said Valley Parks & Recreation Director Laurie Blount. “But, we want to have something that minimizes the risk of getting the coronavirus.”

Blount said that vendors are needed to take part in the festival. Church groups, civic clubs and local businesses are urged to participate. They can call Blount at the Community Center at (334) 756-5281 for details.

“We’d like to have as much participation as we can,” she said.

Mayor Kyle McCoy told The Valley Times-News that it’s yet to be decided whether or not Lanett will be having a fall festival but that there should be an announcement by Monday of next week. “We don’t want to be the one who takes away something like this, but we will be on the safe side,” he said.

The mayor discussed the possibility of having a fall festival at Monday’s meeting of the city council. It will depend on whether or not the city park across from W.O. Lance Elementary School reopens and to what extent it is used. The upper-level playground area will likely remain closed. The middle and lower portions of the city park could be open with the playground area cordoned off with yellow tape. Vendors have expressed interest in having a festival in the park.

In past years, the Lanett Recreation Department has held fall festivals in the downtown area near the fountain.

McCoy said the city would be making an announcement on the hours for trick or treating not long before Oct. 31.

West Point Mayor Steve Tramell told The VT-N that West Point has no plans for a fall festival, but the city’s police department will be taking part in National Faith & Blue Weekend from 3 to 6 p.m. EDT this Saturday. Chief Donald Britt is eager for his officers to meet local citizens and build rapport with them. Chief Britt is of the belief that children in particular need to get to know their local officers and to know that they are there to protect them from harm.