SALISBURY — This past weekend’s “Halloween Fun Fest” was a festive good time. Residents got to enjoy games, food and music, while mounds of candy were handed out to kids to get them ready to go trick or treating on Halloween night. With all that candy being eaten, it’s easy to forget about the candy wrappers that end up as litter on the streets of downtown Salisbury or near Bell Tower Green.

Cleaning up that mess is no easy task and it comes down to the parks and recreation and public works departments working together to make it happen. Event Coordinator Vivian Koontz says that both departments prepare for the amount of litter that gets left on the ground after the festival dies down.

“Kids are running around getting lots of candy and they like to eat it on the spot and they might not be right next to a trash can, so they may just throw it where they are,” Koontz said.

The parks and recreation department has “boots on the ground” at these events with extra pickers and trash bags available for all of the loose wrappers and candy that are on the sidewalks and streets. For the past few events at Bell Tower Green, public works has had a staff member on site to pick up trash to make sure it doesn’t get too dirty while so many people are there at once.

“With the crowd as big as it was, sometimes it’s hard to get into the middle of the lawn to get things and you just have to wait until it’s over,” Koontz said.

In order to keep the litter down to a manageable volume, the city had the DJ performing at the “Halloween Fun Fest” announce periodically to everyone to remember to pick up any trash they see. Also, while waiting for the costume contest to commence, they set up a challenge for kids to collect at least five pieces of trash each.

“Getting the public involved, getting the kids involved with that, it was a fun challenge for them because they all want to see who can pick up the most trash when they make it a game. I think that helped a little bit as well,” Koontz said.

Koontz couldn’t confirm exactly how much trash was collected on Saturday, but she estimated that it all could have filled “half of a five gallon bucket.” Specific foods like bread or popcorn are left alone so birds or squirrels can eat them, but candy that is “a little less friendly to nature” is disposed of immediately.

The city does much of the cleaning at night after the event, so it’s possible for many items to get missed by staff in the dark and be left behind.

“Which happens at every event. We do the best that we can with what we can see,” Koontz said.

The people of Salisbury look forward to these kind of gatherings whenever they take place, and so does the city. However, what happens before and after to keep Salisbury looking beautiful is due to the effort of a group of dedicated employees.

“For all of our events, we always try to leave the park or any venue that we’re using better than it was when we got there. That’s just part of who we are in the parks business and we encourage our public to do the same,” Koontz said.