Closing Memory Lane Not an Option, Report Says

After further analyzing what the city should do about Memory Lane, the city has come back with several recommendations that involve doing the opposite of what the residents living near the walkway wanted: closing it for good.

The City Council will discuss those recommendations at its .

But those alternatives to are likely to upset the group of residents who live adjacent to the 10-foot-wide path and who have been complaining that the city has been neglecting the constant nuisances there for years. They have hired a lawyer and are threatening to sue the city if a fix isn’t found soon.

However, city staff took a further look at the consequences of closing off Memory Lane permanently and determined that closing it wasn’t necessary, primarily because the nuisances reported there aren’t significant enough.

“The level of reported unruly activity at Memory Lane is consistent with the level of such activity experienced elsewhere in the City during the same time frame,” a city staff report stated.

The alternatives that the city is pushing now are the following:

• Add more fencing along Memory Lane, which would cost anywhere from $45 per foot to $110 per foot depending on the type of fence installed. Adding foliage to improve the aesthetics along the path, as some suggested at the last council meeting, would add about $30,000 to that cost.
• Install surveillance cameras, which would cost $7,000 for two camera or $8,000 for four cameras.
• Assign a school resource officer to patrol Memory Lane on a more frequent basis when school gets out.

The city is also suggesting that ’s staff could possibly consider increasing the severity of their punishment for those students caught causing disturbances along Memory Lane. Residents have blamed much of the nuisances there on Parkside students.

The city is also suggesting that residents could form a volunteer group to patrol the area.

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