Group Still Pushing To Stage Christmas-Themed Haunted House In Lombard
(CBS) -- A Lombard community organization that's been denied a permit to operate a Christmas-themed haunted house is not giving up.
The Village Board rejected the permit based, in part, on concerns about added traffic.
Lombard Commonwealth, formerly Lombard Jaycees, says more than 100 kids took part in designing, building and staffing a haunted house during Halloween at a strip mall near York Town Shopping Center.
It's a 43-year tradition.
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The group's President, Jackie West, says they were excited about keeping it going next month, with some modifications for Christmas.
There was also some opposition from people questioning whether it would be appropriate.
To that, West said: "It's not like it's going to be Satan Claus biting the head off of Rudolph. It's not going to be blood and gore and those kinds of things, but my kids will absolutely try to scare people when they come in. That's what they like to do."
She says the kids designed a Rudolph Room, a Christmas Story room and a Christmas Vacation room, among others.
And, she admits, there was some discussion about creating a Village Board room, where the trustees are all Grinches.
She isn't buying the argument that the haunted house would tie up traffic.
She thinks it might have more to do with bad feelings over the group severing ties to the Jaycees and forming the Lombard Commonwealth.
If the village board won't re-consider, one option, she says, is operating the haunted house over three days instead of the planned nine days. Under that plan, the group wouldn't need the Village Board's approval, she says.
