Mahoning Valley - With the Halloween season coming up, both Mahoning and Columbiana County Health Departments are working with their local haunted houses to create pandemic guidelines. With no set plan from the State, the Canfield Scaregrounds open their doors in October after developing a safety plan with the health department.

"We're going to require the masks and the distancing," said Jim Meyers, Director of the Canfield Scaregrounds. "We've now put our monsters back in scenes. They're not in the hallways and the customers will not be walking through the scenes."

Meyers said his team created a set list of guidelines which was then reviewed by the Mahoning County Health Department.

"They [Mahoning County Health Department] critiqued it and had me add and change things to where they think we had a pretty good plan put together," Meyers said. "We just have to wait and make sure that Governor DeWine gives his blessing on that plan or adds whatever he would like to add."

Maniacs in the Woods in Warren created their guidelines without help from the Trumbull County Health Department because the county is waiting on State guidance. The haunted house relied on the CDC's entertainment guidelines and haunted house Facebook groups to create their own rules.

"Typically the patrons may feel around so we've eliminated everything that they could possibly encounter," said De Anna Fuchilla, Manager of Manics in the Woods. "The restrooms have to be frequently sanitized."

Fuchilla said they created a waiting process so groups can maintain social distanced. "The first group will come up at the gate ready to go and then we'll have a second holding area blocked off for them to get out of they're car so that they're ready," Fuchilla said.

The haunted house is requiring live actors to stand on the edge of the trail so they're still socially distanced from customers.

With concern over Governor DeWine pulling the plug on haunted houses, local haunted houses are staying optimistic they will still have a season.

"He [Governor DeWine] might throw a couple of different strategies he wants to throw in there or maybe limit the amount of people or something like that," Meyers said, "but I don't think he's going to shut it down all together."