Unofficial hangouts can cause a rift between youths, merchants

On many summer evenings in Scott City, teenagers play a game with police and business owners. The game is nothing new -- it has become its own sort of tradition.

The teens gather with their cars and trucks in the parking lot of the city's shopping center, next to Rhodes 101 Stop on Main Street. Sometimes they're loud. Sometimes their trash ends up on the parking lot.

Most of the time, the police chase them away at some point during the evening.

A police car drives by on Tuesday night, while about 10 local teens sit on tailgates or run around.

"He's probably going to stop here and make us leave," 17-year-old Jenni Heisserer says as she sees a Scott City police car approach. The car moves on, and Heisserer is surprised.

"He will later," she says.

This game is something the teens and cops go through almost every night in Scott City. But it's not a new game.

Since there were cars, teens have had their hangouts. These are the places they go to get away from parents and get together. Every town has them, from places as small as Oran to larger cities like Cape Girardeau.

In some towns, like Scott City, teen hangouts have caused trouble between older residents and young people. In other places the long-established hangouts are known for being places teens congregate and are accepted.

Teens in Jackson enjoy the benefits of a place to hang out where they don't bother business owners or older people. On summer evenings, Jackson's large city park becomes a hangout for many of the city's young people. And they've been doing it for years.

"For the most part that's a great place for them to be," said Jackson Mayor Paul Sander. "I did exactly the same thing when I was growing up. It's a place you went to congregate and make friends, and talk to other kids your age."

Police implement bicycle patrols as well as car patrols around the park. For them, it's an easy way to keep track of the teens.

Lt. Rodney Barnes with the Jackson Police Department says the teens don't cause too many problems. Sometimes they litter, sometimes their stereos are too loud, but never anything more than that, said Barnes.

The teens who use the park have mixed feelings about the place.

"This is the only place we can hang out where it's legal," says Kacey Shultz, 16. Shultz said hanging out at the park is good because it's a place where teens can congregate, but also lame because they have to just sit around.

But Sander said there's never been any concerted effort to create an alternative hangout spot in Jackson. For teens and adults, the park seems to serve the purpose.

In Cape Girardeau the hangout isn't such a centralized place. Teens might congregate at Capaha Park or the parking lot on the south end downtown.

Patrolman Jason Selzer said the problems are the same, nothing major. Some litter, some loud stereos, some barking tires. Rarely alcohol or other dangerous items that worry parents.

In any town police have to respond to complaints about teens hanging out, and that's what has caused the problems in Scott City. Gene Rhodes owns the parking lot on which the teens like to congregate. He makes his feelings about their behavior clear.

"Whatever we have to do to get them off of that lot, we will do it," Rhodes said. The litter, the noise and the reckless driving are just too much, he said.

In response to the situation the Scott City Council recently gave the teens verbal approval to use a city lot where the old caboose sits, across from the VFW Hall.

Four years ago the city allowed teens to use the lot, said Scott City Mayor Tim Porch, but then the problems started. Litter became such a problem that police chief Don Cobb used to have officers observe the lot to try and catch violators.

The city decided to stop the problem by prohibiting teens from using the lot. But recently Porch's 17-year-old daughter asked if she and her friends could use the lot. Porch took the idea to the city council.

"To me they need somewhere safe to go, and I don't consider out in the county or out on a gravel road safe," Porch said. "On the other hand, I want my children to respect other people's property."

So far the experiment is working. The teens use the lot when the police remove them from the shopping center lot, and the trash hasn't been an issue.

But the teens prefer to use the shopping center lot -- it's more centrally located and has better lighting and more traffic. Parking lots aren't the ideal place to hang out, they say, but in a small town like Scott City, there's little else to do.

"If something better comes along, we're out of here," says 18-year-old Luke Rayfield.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182