City's basketball courts to remain open until 10 p.m.

Trusting that the teens using the basketball court will take an active role in ensuring that park rules are followed, the Parks and Recreation Commission voted last night to allow Wyatt Park's basketball court, and the courts at the city's other parks to remain open until 10:00 p.m.

"We need the kids to step up to the challenge," observed Mary Garside, chair of the commission, hinting that their failure to do so could result in the commission revisiting the issue.

In addition to endorsing the 10 p.m. closing time, which is already a city ordinance, the commission recommended the posting of signs along the streets around the park to warn drivers of children playing. They also supported erecting signs that spell out park rules, similar to those approved by city council for Weirs Beach.

Last night's meeting was quite a departure from the commission's meeting in June attended by Wyatt Park neighbor Tom Mitchell, who demanded that the basketball court be removed. Calling the park "a zoo," Mitchell insisted that the city find some other use for the space, preferably a playground for younger children.

His complaints, echoed by others in the neighborhood, focused on late-night basketball games that keep people awake; a constant barrage of foul and obscene language; loud music, and "speeding and peeling out" by the drivers of the cars transporting kids to the park, many of whom are not from the neighborhood.

At a meeting at the park's clubhouse last week, however, the vast majority of the people attending discounted Mitchell's complaints and opposed his solution.

"What we heard was about 95 percent of the people want the basketball court and want the park to stay open to a reasonable hour," Garside recounted, having attended the clubhouse meeting.

Commissioner Jeff Pattison concurred, though suggesting the figure was closer to 99 percent. And while Garside at first suggested a 9 p.m. closing for the basketball court, Pattison disagreed. "I'd just as soon see it as 10 p.m. and have it follow the existing ordinance.

Garside, however, argued that there were few weeks out of the year when it was light enough to play basketball much past 9 p.m. "I think nine is reasonable," she said. "The kids get a fair shake and the neighbors get a fair shake."

But Diana Lacey, a resident who lives near the park and whose son can frequently be found on the court, wasn't pleased with the idea. "We're talking about teens," she said. "We're willing to keep Weirs Beach open until midnight for tourists, but we aren't willing to keep the basketball courts open for our own kids."

According to Garside, however, there is a significant difference between the two areas, with Wyatt Park situated in the middle of what is largely a residential neighborhood. "Weirs Beach doesn't have houses right next to it," she pointed out.

From Pattison's perspective, the issue was one of uniformity among all the parks, though he conceded an exception to Weirs Beach, and it was his motion that won approval by the commission.

That unanimous decision, however, left Sally Perrino, President of the Wyatt Park Association, unsettled. Noting that it meant the removal of the signs that currently prohibit play after dusk, Perrino expressed concern that upon learning of the 10 p.m. closure, more kids would be apt to play later. "Right now, most of them stop playing once it gets dark," she said. "I'm not sure how this will affect it."

Garside, and Phil Crowley, Parks and Recreation Director, assured her that if it causes problems the commission can always revisit the issue. "Or city council could decide that it wants to do something," Garside said.