Picnic Tables Packed Up, Removed From Peery Park

It wasn't exactly a picnic at Peery Park, so Capitola city leaders have decided to do away with the picnic tables there.

The Capitola City Council took the advice of Police Chief Rudy Escalante and voted Thurday night to do away with the remainder of the picnic tables at Perry Park.

"We used to have tables that were used as a place for drinking, trafficking in drugs perhaps, just things that weren't appropriate," Councilman Michael Termini said. "We already took the wood benches and tables away, so there were just the metal skeletons of the tables left and last night we decided to take those down too. We have no desire to put them back.

"We never saw anyone having a picnic there. ... This was just not an element we wanted young moms to see when they'd pass by pushing their strollers."

Termini noted that not all the benches in the park are being removed.

Part of the trouble with the park, according to Termini, was that it's relatively isolated in areas and the city was prevented from installing nighttime lighting, because the US Department of Fish and Game said the lights would interfere with the fish nearby.