Cobleskill cracking down on park homeless

9/19/2024

By Jim Poole

Concerned about homeless people on public property, the Cobleskill Village Board plans to ban camping in village parks.
Mayor Becky Stanton-Terk and trustees briefly discussed the revised park law Tuesday night but will wait till their October meeting to act on it.
The revised law gives the village authority to physically remove campers from parks, Mayor Stanton-Terk said.
The law on the books “didn’t have teeth” to do so, she added.
The revision stems from homeless people sleeping in Golding Park, or Teen Town, Mayor Stanton-Terk said.
They were asked to move but didn’t do so, and “the last time, we believe there was drug-induced chaos at 3am,” she said.
A woman emailed the Times-Journal this week about a “homeless encampment” in Golding Park, adding that a fellow walker advised her not to go into the park because of safety issues.
Further on safety, Police Chief Joe Mazzone III––promoted from deputy chief to Chief Tuesday night––said syringes were found recently in the park, and there were worries kids would find them or step on them.
The revision also prohibits storing personal property in parks. One man rolls up his tent and keeps it in the Golding pavilion, Mayor Stanton-Terk said.
Although she’s concerned about residents’ safety, the Mayor also noted parks have “no bathrooms, no showers.
“It’s a public park.”
If trustees approve the law in October, it comes just before the Warming Center opens in Warnerville, a successful cold-weather shelter.
Asked where removed homeless people would go in the meantime, Mayor Stanton-Terk said she believed Schoharie County transported them to shelters elsewhere. But she wasn’t sure about that.
Although he’s not concerned about enforcing the proposed law, Chief Mazzone wondered what the options were after removal.
“We have to see what services are available,” he said. “We have to look at it carefully.”
Besides banning pitching a tent and storing personal property, the law also “tightens up” restrictions in parks.
“We don’t want people tampering with trees, statues and village equipment,” Mayor Stanton-Terk said, adding that someone bothered a mother duck and ducklings in Veterans Memorial Centre Park.
North Street resident Ruth Van Deusen criticized the law, saying “it looked like it was pulled from someplace else” because, she said, it “Includes things not applicable to Cobleskill.”
Ms. Van Deusen also questioned enforcement.
“Spitting in a park, vaping in a park, you can’t enforce that on a good day,” she said.
Trustees agree to leave open the public hearing about the law and revisit it in October.