The owner of the Haunted Warren Museum, the attraction planned for 259 Essex Street around artifacts from the Warren property in Monroe, Connecticut, asked the Salem City Council on Thursday, March 12 to let it operate from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week, year round. He did not get an answer that night. After an hour of testimony, Ward 2 Councillor Andrew Smith moved to keep the public hearing open until March 26, when the council settled on 10 p.m. and midnight closings instead.
The pitch
Attorney Brian Grossman of Strang, Scott and Giroux told the council the museum is a fully indoor, guided, ticketed experience of 90 minutes to two hours, with every ticket sold in advance for a timed entry, no on-site sales, no outdoor queuing and no food or alcohol. Final entry would be 11:59 p.m. and after 11 p.m. only eight guests would exit every 20 minutes. “It’s not going to dump hundreds of people into the street all at once, late at night,” he said. Owner Elton Castee said staff would police noise and parking on the street as they do in Connecticut, that late tickets would carry a higher price, and that anyone who appeared intoxicated or rowdy would be refused.
The response
Councillor-at-Large Conrad Prosniewski, a retired Salem police officer, said he had watched Halloween in Salem evolve for decades. “Salem is not used to staying open until 2 a.m. That’s the reality of it,” he said, noting the city closes concessions at 10 p.m. in October for the peace of residents. Councillor-at-Large Ty Hapworth said he could see nothing in the request that would benefit residents and would vote no on the extended hours. Smith said everyone is out of the bars by 1 a.m. and “nothing good happens in Salem after midnight.” Ward 7 Councillor Andrew Varela said the council could approve the hours with a three-month review but worried the owner could lose a large investment if the council later reversed itself. Ward 6 Councillor Katelyn Holappa said the guarantees sounded fine “but we live in the real world.”
Immigration status ordinance
The council gave first passage to Mayor Dominick Pangallo’s rewrite of the city’s ordinance on city services and immigration status. The amendments retitle the article “City Services Related to Immigration Status,” strike the exception that let police officers follow department policy instead of the ordinance, broaden its protection from “any and all Salem residents” to “all people in Salem,” and add language that nothing in it conflicts with state or federal law, interferes with the police department’s lawful transfer of prisoners or affects federal funding. Holappa moved to send it to committee to ask the mayor about its impact; the motion failed. Ward 5 Councillor Lydia King said she was glad to see the police exemption removed and that it would be “a disservice to our community if we don’t pass this tonight.” Prosniewski said the police department has never asked anyone’s immigration status. Hapworth said he did not want to “draw unnecessary attention to Salem” and would pass it to tighten the language. The ordinance received final passage on March 26.
High school vote set
The council adopted the election calendar for a May 5 special election on a debt exclusion to build a new high school, with April 24 as the last day to register, and voted 11 to 0 to move the Ward 3 polling place back to the Salem High School auditorium at 77 Willson Street. Voters approved the debt exclusion on May 5 by an unofficial 4,133 to 3,068, according to the Salem News.
Also at the meeting
- A resolution by Holappa honoring the legacy of Leslie’s Retreat, the February 1775 standoff at the North River bridge, passed 9 to 2 after Smith amended it to replace the name Trump with “current administration.” Ward 4 Councillor Timothy Flynn and Prosniewski voted no; Flynn said he prefers to stay out of national politics.
- On Holappa’s order, a veterans square at Mason and Barstow streets in Ward 6 was named for Sgt. John Dean Ahearn, killed in action on April 9, 1945, with a dedication planned for Memorial Day.
- Councillor-at-Large Kyle Davis’s draft living wage ordinance for city employees, with $1 an hour annual raises beginning in fiscal 2028 until workers reach the living wage, was sent to committee. The gas-powered leaf blower ordinance stayed in committee; Hapworth said it was not equitable or cost effective as drafted.
- Appropriations included $90,740 and $84,559 to finish city projects, retirement payouts of $81,936.36 and $79,515.24 for two Salem police retirements, $72,225 for golf course equipment and $65,500 for Witch House contracted services, plus a $15,000 donation to restore a George Washington portrait and $6,000 from Darleen Melis for tree planting.
- The council received the mayor’s 2025 Haunted Happenings report and a letter on the South Essex Sewerage District’s planned request for special legislation. “If SESD requests an override we need leverage,” the minutes record.
The minutes are here.
