Popular Williamstown Township Halloween decorations won’t be up this year

WILLIAMSTOWN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WILX) - It’s that time of year when you see front yards decorated for the holidays. Some go all out for Halloween and others for Christmas.

But one popular display has been ordered by Williamstown Township to not go up this year. So instead of skeletons and goblins attracting people from across Mid-Michigan to a neighborhood near Haslet and Meridian roads, there’s a sign explaining the display won’t go up.

Update: Community supports Williamstown Township Halloween decorations at townhall meeting

“We do it because we love seeing people happy,” said Cheryl Underwood.

Underwood started putting extravagant Halloween and Christmas decorations in her yard during the pandemic.

“We decided we weren’t going to be able to decorate inside and have people come in and enjoy it. So we decided to take all the decorations and go wild on the outside,” said Underwood.

Decorations filled the front yard, attracting dozens of people until the lights went off at 9 p.m. But, Williamstown Township Supervisor Wanda Bloomquist sent a cease and desist in December asking Underwood to stop with the extravagant decorations.

Bloomquist said that’s because the display was attracting too many cars.

“People parking their cars on other people’s lawns and walking around the street with no street lights has just become a real safety issue,” said Bloomquist.

Which could cause problems if there was an emergency on the short dead-end street.

“People can’t get in and out. If it takes 10 minutes to go down Damon Road if there was an emergency,” said Bloomquist.

Underwood said she’s surprised how many messages she’s getting about the display now she’s not doing them.

“People young and old were enjoying it. And they have been blowing up my Facebook when I notified everyone we weren’t going to be able to do it this year,” said Underwood.

Bloomquist said the Underwoods would be allowed to have a much scaled-down display in their yard.

This was the first time the township sent a letter about holiday decorations.

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