The Leechburg Council chamber was filled to the brim Tuesday night as attendees watched members of the Halloweenburg Council take over for the night.
The special council consisted of one mayor and eight council members, all fourth and fifth graders from David Leech Elementary School, who were charged with picking the winner of the local business scarecrow competitions.
Vying for the grand prize of $100, six Leechburg businesses made scarecrows and placed them in front of their shops. Student council members were shown photos of the creations and had to pick their favorite.
They were presented with photos of a moose scarecrow, a skeleton scarecrow and ballerina scarecrows, among other festive designs. In a majority vote, a scarecrow inspired by the character Edward Scissorhands made by Tisha’s Salon & Spa Bar was declared the winner.
“I like this one because it’s really tall,” fifth grader Kennedy Lynch said about the winner.
Mindie Jack, a Halloweenburg Council member in fifth grade, praised the amount of detail put into the winning scarecrow.
“I like it because it was inspired by Edward Scissorhands, and they put a lot of effort into it,” fourth grader Logan Suveges said.
After the winner was named, student council members and their mayor were given a certificate for their service. Wyatt Hoch, a fifth grader, gave his certificate to Leechburg Mayor Doreen Smeal “for all of her hard work.”
The annual event was hosted by the Leechburg Area Community Association. Dina Blake, president of LACA, said this was the second year the event was celebrated after “going by the wayside” for a few years after its founding several years ago.
Blake said the community association worked with the school. All of the fourth and fifth graders were assigned to write an essay about why they wanted to be the mayor of Halloweenburg. Blake and other LACA members read more than 90 essays last week. The winning essay’s writer, fourth grader Tyler Austen Sanders, was named mayor of Halloweenburg. The rest of the council members wrote the top nine essays.
Smeal was joined by two Leechburg Council members, Alan Tarr and Chuck Pascal, during the voting session.
