Youth cleared to stay in parking lot

CAMDEN – A public parking lot that has become a hangout for local teens and young adults will remain open, despite a request from residents to close it after 11 p.m.

The Select Board agreed Monday night to leave the Mechanic Street lot open, but also supported increased police enforcement of a town ordinance regulating loud and rowdy behavior.

Two weeks ago, the board took up the request to close the lot after police and town officials heard complaints from business owners and those who live in apartments near the lot.

Last summer, the board spent several hours discussing the problems of teens and young adults loitering at the public landing, where there were reports of drinking, drug use, sexual activity and oral harassment of tourists.

This summer, the youth hangout has moved to the parking lot.

Two weeks ago, the board asked Town Attorney Bill Kelly to investigate the legal issues around the parking lot hangout, and also directed the town Community Policing Advisory Group to discuss the matter.

Monday night, Police Chief Phil Roberts reported that Kelly reviewed the town’s Public Noise and Conduct Ordinance and discovered that it provided police the power to issue civil citations against those engaged in “raucous behavior.”

Those convicted of violating the ordinance can face fines of $50-$100 for first offenses, Roberts said.

The community policing committee, after a lengthy discussion of the issue last week, concluded that the lot should remain open to the public, and that police should rely on the ordinance to deal with loud and troublesome loiterers.

Peter Russell, chairman of the community policing group, said with court costs assessed to the guilty, “an offense could run $300 to $400 before it’s all over with.”

Kelly said with attorneys’ fees, the cost to a guilty person could actually run as high as $700 to $1,000.

Roberts said the ordinance would give police more leverage in controlling any rowdy youth.

“It certainly gives us a tool we weren’t aware of before,” he told the board.

Roberts said the department has increased officer patrols of the lot, which is a stone’s throw from the police department’s office, and that since the last meeting, just four more complaints have been logged.

Bob Pieri, whose apartment overlooks the lot, said little has changed for him.

He still relies on earplugs to get to sleep, he told the board. When officers approach the lot, the young people settle down, he said, but noise flares up again, sometimes as late as 12:30 a.m.

Pieri also stressed that it was not a generational clash that prompted his complaints.

“This is not an age issue,” he said. “This is a behavior issue.”

Board member John French agreed, saying when he was a teen in Camden, “I raised hell with the best of them.”

But French said he always respected the rights of others, and the property of others. Some of the teens and young adults use foul language in front of women and children, which he found unacceptable, he said.

Philip Rowe, a teen who spends time at the parking lot, said the town’s concern was being perceived by some as an age issue. But he apologized to Pieri on behalf of those who hang out at the lot for disturbing his sleep.

Rowe said teens need a place to gather, and that with the public landing off limits, the parking lot became the place to be.

Russell invited Rowe and other young adults to join his committee as it reworks the noise and conduct ordinance. The ordinance is nearly 40 years old, and could stand some revision, several people noted.