BANGOR – Despite warnings of a new round of terrorist threats, police here said they were expecting a normal, uneventful Halloween though some parents admitted to feeling a bit uneasy about allowing their children to go trick-or-treating.

“We have gotten a few calls from mothers wondering if we feel it’s safe for their kids to go trick-or-treating in town or at the Bangor Mall,” said Bangor police Sgt. James Owens. “Basically I tell them if they felt safe last year they should feel safe this year.”

Though some malls across the country have canceled scheduled Halloween activities because of safety concerns, Bruce Soper, general manager of the Bangor Mall, said trick-or-treaters were welcome there.

Meanwhile, area police said that although the FBI did issue a bulletin to each department warning of an “imminent” but unspecific terrorist attack on the United States, there was little more they could do that isn’t already being done.

Bangor police Lt. Tim Reid said police were already being extra vigilant, but said no extra patrols were scheduled in light of Monday evening’s warning by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said the latest threat “has re-emphasized our efforts of the past several weeks. This threat is unspecific and our [public safety] efforts are about as high as they can go.”

No additional precautions were being taken because of Halloween, McCausland said.

But some parents are taking their own precautions.

Michelle Madden of Old Town said her 8-year-old son, Zach, would not be trick-or-treating around the neighborhood as he did last year. Instead, the family will drive to the homes of relatives to trick-or-treat and then return home to give out candy.

“You know, on one hand I hear on the news that I should be going about my life as normal and then they’re talking about these imminent new threats,” Madden said. “How can you live your life normally when you feel you have to be looking over your shoulder all the time?”

Bangor City Councilor Nichi Farnham, the mother of three boys, plans to take her troop of ghosts and goblins all about her neighborhood tonight.

“I’ve tried to keep our lives pretty normal, or at least as normal as possible,” she said Tuesday. “Normal for us on Halloween is trick-or-treating at the homes of our friends and neighbors. My thoughts are what better time to be visiting friends and neighbors.”

Farnham said she knows of parents who do have concerns.

“I heard one say she wasn’t going to go to the mall, because she wouldn’t feel safe there, and I heard another woman say she was going to the mall because she felt it was safer than going door to door. So I guess everyone has a different handle on the safety issue,” said Farnham.

Nicole Caruso of Bangor said her 5-year-old son also would be trick-or-treating tonight.

“We’ll do what we always do. I feel we live in a safe neighborhood. We always go just around here to people we know. That’s what we do anyway,” she said.

Soper said that normally hundreds of costume-clad children head to the Bangor Mall for convenient and warm trick-or-treating, but he said he expected that the crowd would be smaller than normal because of people’s concerns.

“I think people will use their own judgment, and people have various comfort levels,” he said.

Security is always a bit tighter at the mall on Halloween, and it will be tonight as well, Soper said.

Area police departments said they had not scheduled additional officers to work on Halloween.

“It’s pretty hard to prepare for something when you have no idea what kind of threat you could potentially be facing,” said Penobscot County Sheriff Chief Deputy Glenn Ross. “We have been extremely aware and extra alert since September 11, and we will continue to be so.”

Bill Reed, the town manager of Veazie, said his three children would be trick-or-treating in Veazie and said the town also reinstated its community Halloween festival at the Veazie Community School this year.

“It kind of went by the wayside the last couple of years, but this year people seemed interested in bringing it back so we did. That provides an option for people who may not feel comfortable partaking in other Halloween traditions,” he said.