HUNTINGTON -- Teenagers who skateboard and play hackysack in the downtown are becoming a nuisance, a handful of downtown business owners said Thursday.
During a Downtown Huntington Partners meeting at the Pullman Plaza Hotel, business owners told Police Chief Skip Holbrook that teenagers and young adults who come downtown to ride their skateboard or play hackysack are littering, loitering at Pullman Square and have no courtesy for pedestrians.
"They'll run you off the sidewalk if you're not watching," Sherry Houvouras, owner of City Kids and Co. on 4th Avenue, said of skateboarders she has encountered. "These aren't kids. They're thugs."
Shawn Bresnahan, owner of Le Cook Store on 3rd Avenue, said it's a daily ritual for packs of teenagers to play hackysack or loiter at Pullman Square until they are run off the property by security guards. They then cross 3rd Avenue, where they hang out in front of the old Stone & Thomas building, he said.
Holbrook said he understands the business owners' concerns. He recently saw a skateboarder holding onto a bumper of a car as it traveled down a downtown alley.
"This requires the Police Department to have a greater presence in the downtown and take a zero-tolerance policy on this kind of stuff," Holbrook said. "These are little things, but they add up."
Skateboarding is illegal on 3rd, 4th and 5th avenues between 7th and 11th streets, according to a city ordinance. Holbrook said previous administrations have taken skateboards away from kids and called their parents to pick them up.
"Maybe we need to take a few skateboards and issue citations to spread the word that we're getting serious about this," he said. "You have to strike a balance. If we displace these kids, they'll just go somewhere else."
The Huntington-Ironton Empowerment Zone, Tri-State Transit Authority and Metropolitan Partners, the owners of Pullman Square, have pitched in $20,000 each to contract with the Police Department to have an officer patrol the core downtown area.
Because it will take some time to get a new, full-time officer in place, off-duty HPD officers are taking on the duty right now. They're patrolling Veterans Memorial Boulevard and 3rd and 4th avenues between 8th and 10th streets from 8 p.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday nights.
Holbrook said the full-time officer likely will be someone who's already on the force, but that person will have to wait until the Police Department hires six more officers during the 2008-2009 fiscal year. The new fiscal year begins July 1.
Holbrook said the Police Department also has placed unmanned cruisers in certain areas of the downtown to deter crime.
Also during the meeting, Holbrook gave business owners an explanation about why parking meter attendants are now under control of the Police Department.
"It provides more continuity if they are under our supervision," he said. "Meter attendants shouldn't be a revenue-enhancer for the city. Their mission is compliance and to keep traffic flow moving in the downtown."
Parking ticket revenue increased 13 percent in the first month that the Police Department took over supervision of the meter attendants, Holbrook said.
7-day Archive
