Public hearings planned on Florence curfew issue

FLORENCE — A committee reviewing a curfew ordinance for the city of Florence decided during a work session Wednesday that public hearings must be conducted on the matter.

The ordinance under consideration would establish a daytime curfew for minors ages 6 through 16 between 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on any school day by addressing minors in need of supervision.

The meeting Wednesday was led by Florence City Councilman Ed Robinson, who questioned whether the hearings should be held during Council meetings or elsewhere.

The consensus was that they needed to be held at other locations and times more convenient for parents and guardians to attend.

“We’ve been working on this for a little over a year trying to come up with a means of keeping our kids in school,” Robinson said. “In the neighborhood where I live, there are so many kids running around in the streets during the day. This is unacceptable.

“I think it is incumbent upon us to do whatever we need to do to protect our children because they are our future. And if they aren’t in school, they are totally lost.”

Robinson said the ordinance already has been presented to Council, but questions have been raised.

“We just are coming back together to kind of tweak what we have,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a perfect ordinance. It’s something we’re going to have to adjust periodically to make it fit with what we have.”

“This is a meeting of concerned individuals in the community looking at the final touches to the legislation for curfews during school hours for certain age students,” Florence City Councilman Steve Powers said. “It’s such an important issue. We have a lot of questions that need to be answered.”

Powers said he’s looked at different scenarios. One of them might be a student being picked on at school who decides to stay out of school.

“If we’re lucky enough to find that student, we want to get him a counselor to talk to,” Powers said. “If we can find out what the problem is, it’s up to this group to have something in place to rectify that problem.

“We want to help the students. We don’t want to put anything in place that places a big burden on them or their families.”

The committee agreed Wednesday that more issues had to be worked out before the ordinance is passed.

Florence Public Works Director Drew Griffin said there are budget implications regarding the ordinance. He said he thought it would be February or March before the ordinance could move forward.

“We don’t want to put it off too long,” Robinson said. “We don’t want to lose the momentum that we have going.”

“We need an ordinance with text and substance,” Griffin countered. “We’ve got to have procedures.”