Hauser May Use Curfew To Fight Pranks
First someone painted over the headlights of parked pickup trucks.
Then someone stole Ron Meek’s three-wheel motorcycle.
Perhaps worst of all was the time someone made off with Russell Sala’s old pear tree.
“They came by here one night and sawed it off - my pear tree, 20 feet tall,” said Sala. “They drug it into the neighbors’ yard, and just left it there.”
No one was ever caught for the motorcycle theft or the tree chopping, but some locals blame it on juveniles.
“You know that’s not adults. It’s got to be kids,” said Hauser City Councilwoman Carmen Miller.
Tonight, the Hauser City Council will discuss a juvenile curfew. The meeting starts at 7:30 at City Hall.
“We’ve had a lot of trouble out here in the summertime,” said Mayor Ed Peone. “Kids wander the streets at all hours of the night. There’s nothing good they could be doing at those hours.”
He said most of the problems have been minor - a little spraypainting, the occasional broken window. Still, Peone said, the curfew would serve as a deterrent.
“We’re not anticipating a big problem with enforcement on it,” the mayor said.
The proposed ordinance is modeled on Coeur d’Alene’s curfew, which prohibits anyone under 18 from being on the streets between 10:30 p.m. and 5 a.m. Sunday through Thursday. On Friday and Saturday, the curfew is in effect from midnight to 5 a.m.
“I think it’s a good idea,” said Miller, mother of two toddlers. “A lot of these kids don’t have any guidance.”
The ordinance allows police to “take charge” of the youths and call their parents to come and get them. Exceptions are allowed for emergencies, errands, travel or “any legitimate business.”
On Tuesday, the mayor and two council members predicted the curfew will pass overwhelmingly.
“Frankly, they (locals) kind of wondered why we hadn’t done it in the past,” said Peone.
The council is expected to approve the first of three readings of the ordinance at tonight’s meeting. Because council meetings are monthly, it will probably be three months before the law takes effect.
The delay won’t matter much, Peone said, because most problems happen during the summer. That’s when students are out of school and many youths stay with relatives in Hauser.
“It seems that the population of kids doubles in the summertime,” he said.
xxxx Meeting Curfew in Hauser discussed tonight at 7:30