78
a.
)
More on the pet disease —page 14
More on Historic District —page 9
Tobacco spitting and more! —page 8
Gary Newton of the Congregational Bible Church gets the $1.00
prize for tipping us off to the back page story on rappelling.
SUSQUEHANNA TIMES
Susquehanna Times & The Mount Joy Bulletin
MARIETTA & MOUNT JOY, PA.
Vol. 78, No. 35, August 30, 1978
FIFTEEN CENTS
The kids:
“Police are hassling us”’
The young people who
are often seen standing
along Market Street in
Marietta’s business district
have been avoiding the
area of Marco's Pizza
restaurant lately: the resi-
dents of the area complain-
ed about the youths to
he borough council at the
iast meeting. The 65
petitioners called them a
‘‘nuisance’’ and accused
them of double parking,
using drugs and alcohol
publicly, using obscenity,
and so on. The petitioners
had singled out Marco's as
the primary hangout, al-
though other businesses’s
sidewalks also host idle
young people on occasion.
How do the young people
feel about the complaint?
is the only
’ said
‘“‘Marco’s
place we have to go,
Jim Hess, one of a group
gathered near the laundro-
mat one evening last week.
‘‘If they gave us a place to
go, we’d go there,” Jim
went on. ‘‘But when you
don’t own a car... there’s
not much to do in Mari-
etta.”’
The other youths, who
ranged in age from early
teens to early twenties,
nodded in agreement as
Jim answered the charges
of littering and boisterous-
ness.
“Sure, people get bois-
terous sometimes. That's
only natural. As for litter-
ing, the trash can in front
of Marco’s is always full.”
The double-parking com-
plaint, he said, was based
on people stopping their
cars for a few seconds to
see if anyone was in
Marco's.
Who signed the petition?
“Old people. The peti-
tion is aimed at the
younger generation.”’
A woman, about 30 years
old, walked past during the
interview. She had to walk
among the lounging kids to
get past, as they were
spread all over the side-
walk.
Although they were not
crowding her, and paid no
attention to her passage,
she hesitated as she came
near the group; her steps
quickened as she walked
through. She glanced at a
longhaired, bare-chested
young man’s tattoo with
distaste. The kids scared
her.
[continued on page 2)
The police:
“We aren’t hassling them;
they’re hassling the citizens’
Some of the kids who
were found hanging out in
Marietta’s commercial dis-
trict last week told the
Susquehanna Times that
the Marietta Police had
been ‘‘harassing’’ them.
We called Chief Millar for
a comment. He said:
‘“We aren’t harassing
them; they're harassing the
people of Marietta. ;
‘““We get calls from
people, complaining about
them. That’s why we
disperse them.”’
Marco’s retaurant is not
the problem, he said. The
kids loiter all over the
business district.
“When they gather in a
group, pedestrians have
trouble getting through.
We can’t allow them to
block a public passageway.
‘““Not only do they ob-
struct the sidewalks, they
also obstruct the roadway,
by just sitting in the middle
of the street in their cars.”
The charge that the
police had arrested them
for loitering, and imposed
$51 fines, is false, says
chief Millar—there is no
such crime as loitering.
‘““We arrested some of
them, all right,”’ he told
us. ‘“‘For trespassing. They
had been warned, at least a
week in advance, by both
police and the owner of the
property.’’
(The kids had been
sitting on a stoop, which is
private property.) :
Millar said that - the
youths often make noise
and litter. The other week,
they almost caused an
accident by throwing a
frisbee across the street,
startling a truck driver into
sudden braking; a motor-
cyclist, following closely,
barely avoided running into
the truck.
“l can sympathize with
them,”’ Millar said. ‘‘There
is nothing to do in
Marietta.” He said that
there is a great need for a
recreation area where kids
who are not sports minded
can go. He said that this
would solve the problem in
part. Some of the loiterers,
though, would still cause
trouble, according to the
chief.
Another source, one who
lives on Market Street,
said that some of the group
of kids are actually involv-
ed in crimes such as
burglary.
Like Millar, this source
said that Marco’s restaur-
ant isn’t responsible for the
problem. ‘‘They [i.e., those
who signed the petition
presented to Borough
Council] picked on Marco’s
because the kids spent a
little more time there than
in front of the other
businesses. They see it as
the loitering command cen-
ter because Marco has a
game room.’’
This person also inform-
ed us that a meeting of the
police, borough officials,
and others, will shortly be
held to discuss the recrea-
tion problem.
Just how bad is the
flooding situation on Birch-
land Avenue in Mount Joy?
To find out, a Susquehanna
Times reporter toured the
street right after last
Sunday’s rain.
The street itself was a
mess, with big brown
puddles at the feet of some
driveways, but there was
no apparent backyard
flooding.
“You should have been
The Marietta survey of
public opinion has been
released by Borough plan-
ner Paul Sontag.
While only 28% of the
1808 questionnaires mailed
last February were filled
out and returned, the
survey is still a valuable
tool for government plan-
ning: those who returned
them are the likely to be
the same people who are
concerned about their
borough. In any case, more
people filled out the ques-
tionnaire than voted in the
last election, so council
need have no qualms about
acting on the survey
results.
The survey tabulation
(copies are available at the
borough office) shows the
following:
BUSINESS
The survey shows that
Mariettians like their local
stores and businesses, but
don’t like the downtown
shopping area. 59% said
the stores were ‘‘neat and
attractive’’ (25% said they
weren't), and the only
area of wide complaint was
lack of variety: clothing,
shoe, and drug stores are
needed, the people said.
Birchland Avenue’s
water problems
here two weeks ago," said
Oliver Mateer, who was
trying to sweep mud off his
driveway with a broom. He
showed us a photograph
(reproduced below) which
he had taken after the
heavy rains of August 11.
The photo shows a sheet of
chocolate-colored water
blanketing the backyard of
Mr. Mateer's neighbor,
Jeff Brown.
[continued on page 11]
Marietta survey
results released
The shopping area was
called unpleasant by 52.9%
of the respondents, who
cited loitering as the main
reason for their dissatisfac-
tion. Littering, lack of
variety, lack of competition,
and insufficient parking
space followed on the list,
each one being listed by
about 10% of the people.
A whopping 75% of the
people favored the estab-
lishment of more stores in
Marietta. Only 13.3%
didn’t want new business.
About half favored the
centralized shopping area
over a less centralized
business district.
ENVIRONMENT
Most people seemed to
feel that more recreational
facilities should be provid-
ed in Marietta. The ques-
tion was divided into three
parts: east, central, and
‘vest Marietta. The respon-
dents felt a stronger need
for recreation in the west
of Marietta. 62% favored
more facilities here, and
only 21% were opposed.
(The split was 50-50 at the
east end of town.)
72% said the high school
should be made more
available to adults for
recreational use. 56.7%
favor an outdoor public
swimming pool (32.6%
opposed).
[continued on page 14)