Â鶹´«Ã½

The Â鶹´«Ã½ City Council adopted the rule on Monday. The amendment bans anyone from sleeping or hanging out on the Old Burke County Courthouse Square or city parks between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

At the Monday meeting, Public Safety Chief Ryan Lander said amending the ordinance is an opportunity to educate the public about reasonable expectations for community members.

Since January 2023, Â鶹´«Ã½ Public Safety has responded to 288 calls at the Old Burke County Courthouse Square, Lander said.

The calls Â鶹´«Ã½ Public Safety deals with at the courthouse square included damage to property, vandalism, domestic violence incidents, fighting, assaults, harassment or threats made, indecent exposure, public sex acts, intoxicated people, overdoses and urinating, Lander said. What officers have seen include broken toilets, broken sinks and human feces on the ground and on the walls in public bathrooms, he said.

Lander said his department got input from other departments that deal with similar issues.

He said New Hanover County, which encompasses the city of Wilmington, responded to similar issues with a three-part process.

First, New Hanover enacted an ordinance that prevented people from being in their public spaces from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.

The second part of the process was a two-week educational component where deputies handed out flyers about the ban from public spaces during those particular hours, Lander said.

The third step was informing people about resources available to those who may need help with housing, mental health and substance abuse, he said.

After two weeks, New Hanover went into strict enforcement of the ordinance, Lander said.

Lander said he plans to follow the same process. He hopes to use the remainder of August to get signs up in the public spaces and then use the month of September for the educational component.

“And the reason that the educational component is so long is because I don’t want to arrest community members,� Lander said. “It is to give them every opportunity to understand what was passed, find other avenues, other resources, to seek assistance.�

Enforcement of the ordinance will start Oct. 1.

People in violation of the ordinance can either be arrested through citation or they can be put in handcuffs and taken to the magistrate office. A lot of it will be up to the arresting officer.

Swimming in Â鶹´«Ã½

• The last day for outdoor swimming at Collett Street Swimming Pool will be Monday, Sept. 1.
• Fall/winter hours for indoor swimming at the Â鶹´«Ã½ Aquatics Center will start Tuesday, Sept. 2.
• The splash pads at Martha’s Park and MLK Park will close sometime after Labor Day, depending on the weather.