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Foul language, trespassing and other problems in the Sunset Drive bridge area have gotten so bad, the city will look at reviving an ordinance that was unintentionally vacated almost 30 years ago.
The area is in Warsaw City Councilwoman Diane Quance’s district, which is the northern part of the city.
“There is an ordinance that needs to be reintroduced and put back on. It was, for some reason, lost in the shuffle in 1989-90 when the code was changed,” Mayor Joe Thallemer told city council Monday night. He said council wasn’t going to debate the issue Monday night, but was just being updated by Quance on what was going to come up before it at a later date.
Quance explained, “We have an issue in the Pike Lake neighborhood with a number of neighbors contacting me and the police department about people trespassing onto their property, and also standing on the bridge or underneath the bridge along the cement buttresses, fishing but also using foul language.”
She said neighbors suspect other problems and have called the police several times.
“Initially, there was a lot of confusion about responding and so I was instructed to have the homeowners all post ‘no trespassing’ signs on their lawns, which they have done.”
Police have been called out to the bridge, but a fisherman pointed out there is no ordinance supporting the sign that reads “no fishing from the bridge” though the sign itself indicates city ordinance numbers, she said.
A sign can’t be enforced by police if there is no ordinance for it.
City attorney Mike Valentine looked into the ordinance and discovered the ordinance had been vacated.
Quance told council members she would send them photos of the area on Sunset Drive where it says no fishing from the bridge, where trespassing is occurring.
“The homeowners feel like they should not have to pay for their private attorney to enforce no trespassing,” she said.
Valentine said, “That’s a criminal matter. The prosecuting attorney takes care of that. They don’t have to hire anybody to accomplish that.”
Quance agreed, but said the trespassers have to be caught first.
The original ordinance “addressed so many feet from the center line you could not do those activities, but there’s also some issues of where the private property line is,” Thallemer said.
City Planner Jeremy Skinner said the property corners were staked so if a councilman went out there to look at it they could tell where the properties’ corners were.
“All four property corners butt up to that bridge. You’ll see where there’s a stake, and that’s where their property ends and the public begins,” Skinner said.
Thallemer said the issues are private property and trespassing, and the fact that the ordinance prohibiting fishing from the bridge is now non-existent.
“It just got lost. It was there,” Valentine said.
Thallemer said the previous ordinance prohibited fishing, loitering and littering from the public bridge.
Without the ordinance in place, there’s nothing to keep people from fishing off the bridge. “Trespassing is still an issue, but it’s a separate issue. So what Diane is asking is to resurrect that ordinance. I don’t know if we’ll change it or bring it back as it was, and then have discussion on it,”?Thallemer said.
Quance said Warsaw Police Department Chief Scott Whitaker has been involved in trying to enforce something.
Council President Mike Klondaris asked Quance, “Is this a fairly recent phenomenon with all the sudden – the ordinance hasn’t been enforced or has been off the books for 20 years and just recently we’re having problems – is that a recent phenomenon?”
She responded, “The problem is recent enough. The fisherman stating the ordinance was no longer in effect, no one knew it was no longer in effect. The numbers are still posted on the sign.”
Ron Shoemaker, councilman, asked if there were other problems beside fishing off the bridge. Thallemer said neighbors are complaining.
“Loud, obscene language,” Quance said. On a personal note, she later told the council, “It’s not an exaggeration because one night, from where I live, with my hearing aids off, with my windows shut, I heard them screaming and yelling and fighting and cussing out there and I live about an eighth of a mile away. So, yes, sound does carry on the water, but I heard their words and I don’t live that close.”
Quance said a problem was the fishermen’s behavior while they’re fishing off the bridge. She encouraged the other councilmen to pay a visit out there, and said Whitaker would like the council to make a decision so he and his department know how to handle the issues.
