(Arianne Starnes/Examiner)
Richard Sheeler, 66, right, says he enjoyed sitting at the tables that were removed Tuesday from this Locust Lane courtyard. Sheeler, who said he is homeless, is upset about that but agrees with local merchants about the area’s problem with loitering and drunkenness. “I don’t think it’s right. I think something should be done about it,” he says. “It takes one person to mess it up for everybody,” says Roland Yelton Jr., 21, of Westminster, left.

Kelsey Volkmann, The Examiner
2007-05-16 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

Westminster’s police chief is exploring whether to redesignate a courtyard downtown as a park to crack down on loiterers that local merchants say are scaring shoppers away.

“They are making the area less attractive to potential patrons,” Westminster Police Chief Jeffrey Spaulding said. “With park regulations, we’d have more of an ability to enforce conduct-related issues.”

Business owners complain that about 20 people consistently hang out at the corner of East Main Street and Locust Lane, across the street from the Westminster branch of the Carroll County Public Library.

The difficulty in enforcing loitering laws has forced Westminster officials to think creatively about alternative solutions, such as a park designation, where hours could be set and individuals banned.

To help combat the problem, the city removed benches and tables Tuesday from the Locust Lane courtyard — a positive change that dispersed the crowd, said Toni Pomeroy, who is planning the grand opening of her new business, Pomeroy Jewelers, next door.

The people who congregate outside “are as loud as can be,” she said.

“I don’t want a crowd of people intimidating [visitors] and blocking doors. We need some consistent change,” said Pomeroy, who added that she knew some families with young children who have stopped walking on Main Street to avoid the loiterers.

David Baxter, who owns the building which houses Pomeroy Jewelers, along with other retail space and offices on Locust Lane, said a drunken person knocked over a potential tenant and the tenant said he would never move to Westminster as a result.

“It’s not homeless people — it’s people with disregard for laws we set,” he said. “We have made a huge effort to revitalize downtown, bring in new businesses and move businesses back from Route 140 to Main Street.”

Lori Graham, president of the Greater Westminster Development Corporation, a group devoted to luring businesses to vacant storefronts downtown, agreed.

“Keep looking at Main Street,” she said, “as the place to be soon.”

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com