Published: October 28, 2009 12:18 am      

TOWN OF TONAWANDA: Town man’s haunted house to open on Halloween

After more than a week of wrangling, contractor Paul Deck will be able to open his haunted house on Halloween.

The Northwood Drive resident transformed his entire front yard into a spooky creation for neighborhood children as he has for more than a decade, but the town’s building department received a complaint from another resident in the area on Oct. 16 and had to shut it down.

Supervising Building Inspector Carl Heimiller said a complaint from a neighbor is what led him to the site, but that if he had seen it while out doing the rounds he would have had his own questions. Deck has been building the haunted house for 15 years, but said it had previously been more of an open air format with a big cover over the top creating a cave. Displays would be set up on the sides, but the path to Deck’s front door would be open and visible from the entrance.

“As the kids got older, it got bigger and scarier,” Deck said.

Now, with 15 years worth of Halloween merchandise bought on clearance and plenty of scrap fences, mirrors and wood from various job sites, Deck has built his biggest version yet. This year’s 1,200 square foot creation is a closed-in structure with a maze that could pose problems if anything caught fire or the power was shut off, Heimiller said.

Once inside, inspectors found a few problems and deemed the haunted house unfit for occupancy. Since then there’s been a lot of back and forth. Once local media got involved, Councilman John Bargnesi, who chairs the town’s building department committee, stepped in to broker a deal.

“The town looks like the bad guy, the Scrooge or whatever you want to call it, but what people have got to realize is there’s potentially a huge safety concern,” Bargnesi said.

Another inspection brought up a series of recommendations to get the haunted house open by Halloween, but uncertain about whether he’d even be able to open it, Deck had slowed down his construction. Then handwritten letters from neighborhood children began to pop up on the front of the haunted house alongside the building department notice. That’s when Deck said he really decided to keep moving forward.

“When you see something like this,” Deck said, motioning to the letters, “this is why you do it. Times are tough, and I figured this is something we can keep doing for the kids for the holiday.”

After Heimiller’s inspection, Deck agreed to string up the electrical cords that inspectors considered a fire hazard and add an extra emergency exit in case the lights end up going out. The building cleared the electrical inspection Tuesday afternoon and is slated to have a full clearance to operate by today.

“I think by tomorrow we’re going to be comfortable enough with everything to issue a temporary structure permit,” Heimiller said Tuesday.

Inside the haunted house Tuesday afternoon, Deck showed off the new emergency exit, cut out of the plastic walls near his front door as an escape route just in case any of the neighborhood kids get skittish. But to keep from ruining the effect, the flap will be shut and someone will stand there to guide people out if need be. Deck said that’s an arrangement to which Heimiller agreed, pointing out that the town’s building department has been on board with trying to get the site open from the start.

“They’ve been very fair,” Deck said. “The town’s not nearly as bad as the media’s making them out to be.”

Scott Boivin, chief of the Brighton Volunteer Fire Company, said firefighters will be on hand with a truck, although he doesn’t expect any trouble at the event. The fire company performs similar continuous fire watches at other community events like block parties and bonfires.

“It’s more a fire prevention thing for us,” Boivin said.

Bargnesi said the fire company’s involvement helped insure the event’s survival, and credited the volunteer firemen for stepping up to help Deck keep the tradition alive.

“The biggest piece of the puzzle was when the Brighton Fire Company agreed to volunteer their services to the resident,” Bargnesi said. “It’s been quite an ordeal, but we got it done.”

Deck agreed that all the attention focused on him has been awkward, wondering what the turnout will be like this year when the haunted house opens its doors. He typically sees around 500 children just from the neighborhood, but now he’s concerned that all the public attention will make that number skyrocket. He just hopes there’s enough candy to go around, and wants people to know that the display is free as always.

“I don’t want any donations, no money, nothing,” Deck said.

Contact reporter Daniel Pye at 693-1000, ext. 158.