NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson City Council is closing Avenue A Park sooner and opening it later than the rest of the parks in the city in an effort to combat people who are trying to sleep there and leave property behind.
In addition to the ordinance changing the time of the closure to 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. at Avenue A Park, there will be a regulation issued by the Director of Parks and Facilities. The rest of the city's parks close at midnight and open at 5 a.m.
"It will be along the lines of a park regulation that says, all unattended property present after park hours will be deemed abandoned and discarded by city staff," said City Attorney Paul Brown. "That will apply to all parks and it will be posted."
The reason that an ordinance and a regulation need to be outlined is because governments cannot just take property from people without due notice, as that would be a potential constitutional violation, but they are allowed to control the time, place and manner that public property is used.
"We can't just go down without notice and pick it all up," Brown said. "This is an attempt to address that very subject. We will continue to try and make things better, because that's not what the parks are for."
The Hutchinson City Council approved the ordinance unanimously.
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