OSWEGO, NY – Teens may have their own Thursday night special event in the next couple of weeks.
At Monday night’s council committee meetings, Mayor Randy Bateman noted he has been in discussion with Bruce Bailey of the Red Plant Skate Park on West First Street in an attempt to give youngsters something to do on Thursday nights.
Currently, a large number of teens, and younger kids, hang out at the weekly farmers’ market causing trouble, city and market officials said.
City officials are considering closing a street down by the Red Planet and Bailey would arrange for some sort of entertainment, the mayor explained.
If the council is agreeable to whatever plan they decide on, they could start by July 17, he said.
There is a lot adjacent to the business that has a concrete base and has been used for a stage area in the past, Councilor Connie Cosemento (D-First Ward) pointed out.
“If they used that, you wouldn’t have to close a street,” she said. “I don’t think we should be closing a street to put skateboarders in a street when it’s exactly what we don’t want. The traffic down there on First Street is heavier than you realize.”
The event would help alleviate the problems some youth are causing at the market, the councilors said.
“I got a few calls about fighting (at the market),” Councilor Shawn Walker (R-Fourth Ward) said, adding that even younger children have gotten into trouble. “I have had two younger kids in my ward beat up down there.”
He said he would like to see an age requirement, where younger children would have to be accompanied by an adult to be at the market.
The teens don’t always go to certain events, Gail Goebricher, the chamber’s market manager, pointed out.
“We had some bands at the YMCA for a couple weeks once,” she said. “We had maybe 10 – 15 kids there; this was with handing out fliers for weeks ahead of time.”
Cosemento said Walker’s idea has some merit to it.
Mike Dehm, police chief, asked what they would do with a youngster who wasn’t supposed to be at the market. Currently, the department doesn’t have the manpower or facility to handle such as task efficiently.
“Some of the kids who come to the farmers’ market are very good,” Goebricher pointed out. “It’s a crowd thing – if one does it, everybody does it. The last few weeks thanks to the chief, the mayor and everybody being cooperative, we have had extremely good turnout of police presence. They have been making arrests and moving the crowds along. The last few weeks it’s been going very well.”
There are a certain number of kids that are there just to cause trouble, she added.
“They have no respect for themselves, they have no respect for their parents and certainly no respect for the police; you can tell by the way they talk to the police and talk back to them,” she continued.
Having an event at the Red Planet is a good idea, she said.
“It’s going to draw some of them, but it’s not going to draw the severe troublemakers,” she said. “This farmers’ market is a thing we’ve had here for a couple of hundred years. It’s been in that spot for well over 50 years. I consider it our downtown block party, and we’re losing it, we are losing it.”
Several people have told her they won’t attend the market because of the gangs of kids, their language, the pushing and shoving and other bad behavior.
“If we lose the farmers’ market in Oswego, we’re losing an awful big part of our city’s history and tradition,” she said. “I don’t know what the answer is but right now I’m looking at continued police pressure. So far, it’s helping.”
Council President Dan Donovan (R-Fifth Ward) agreed it is a big problem, and you don’t get any support or cooperation from many of the parents, he added.
“The event at the Red Planet would probably be a great idea,” he said. “It probably won’t draw all the kids down there but it’ll make things more manageable for the police.”
The mayor will continue discussions with Bailey and report back to the committee with an updated proposal.
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