PORT ANGELES — Gone are the large logs that bordered the north-side parking lot of the Red Lion Hotel.
And with it, hotel management hopes, are the teenagers that they consider a nuisance.
The Port Angeles waterfront lodge Tuesday removed all landscaping from the north side of the parking lot — at the corner of Railroad Avenue and Lincoln Street — including the logs that many youths found attractive to sit on.
“We decided to remove them for the safety of our guests and the perception of our hotel,” said Tahnya Shafer, the general manager of the hotel at 221 N. Lincoln St.
What they will be replaced with hasn’t been determined.
Shafer said the hotel has had a longstanding problem with teenagers bothering guests, smoking, drinking and “basically causing a bit of a nuisance.”
That problem is well-known to police, who stepped up patrols of the area around the intersection of Railroad Avenue and Lincoln Street this week.
Port Angeles Police Downtown Resource Officer John Nutter said he gets reports of teenagers causing problems down there daily.
He called the area an “attractive nuisance.”
Nutter said he suggested that the hotel remove the logs after hearing complaints from management.
But what do the teenagers themselves think?
“I don’t know what the big deal is,” said Adam Harris, who used to sit on the logs with friends.
Harris, 17, said it’s no secret that teenagers like to frequent that part of downtown. But he dismissed comments from those who think they are a problem.
“We just want to have a nice day and let everyone else have a nice day,” Harris said.
His friends, Matt Johnson, 17, and Kyle Birmingham, 18, also said they were disappointed to see the logs gone.
But it won’t mean they are going to spend time some place else, they said.
“Just because they took the logs down doesn’t mean we’re not going to hang around here anymore,” Birmingham said.
He said they like to spend time there because “it’s basically in the center of town.”
“It’s just a good place to hang out,” Johnson said.
Nutter said that police don’t assume that every youth is causing problems down there, but added that some are trouble makers, saying that several were harassing the hotel’s contractors as they removed the logs.
“If they would police themselves, we wouldn’t get involved,” Nutter said.
Kelly Sandhu, owner of the Dairy Queen on Railroad Avenue, said she has a “big problem” with youths loitering outside her store and bothering some customers.
She doesn’t expect the removal of the logs nearby to change that.
Sandhu said it’s been an issue since The Gateway transit center opened in June 2009.
“What kind of impression does this give to our town?” she said.
Police Chief Terry Gallagher said officers are limited in how they can respond to complaints from business owners about the teenagers since it’s not illegal to loiter.
But he said they will try to patrol the area as frequently as every 15 minutes to try to keep those calls and other complaints down.
He said they stepped up patrols, which he said is the best way to deter any possible criminal activity, Monday after speaking with the hotel’s management.
“The best way to confront that basically is to be there,” Gallagher said.
Police reports from the past two months show three calls reporting possible minor in possession of alcohol near the hotel and City Pier and two calls involving juvenile assembly.
Deputy Chief Brian Smith said police had increased patrols in the past when complaints were on the rise.
Nutter said it’s too early to tell if the removal of the logs will reduce complaints.
Even if that isn’t the end result, the officer said, he believes it still increases public safety.
“It opens up the visibility of that area,” Nutter said.
Smith said police are considering whether to propose an anti-loitering law to the City Council.
He said any such law would have to be narrowly defined to avoid stepping on people’s constitutional rights and couldn’t be used to stop people from simply “hanging out” downtown.
Rather, such an ordinance likely could only prevent loitering when done with the intent to commit a crime.
Smith said any decision on the matter is likely a ways off, adding, “We just aren’t there yet.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
