Fredericktown City Lake to adjust fishing hours
The city lake in the morning. The sign for city lake read “Closed from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.,” and a man told the city clerk that it was closed when he got there.
The ordinance for the opening hours of City Lake Park is slated to be updated after someone was told to leave even though he was following the sign.
Instead of being closed ‘11 p.m. to 7 a.m,’ as the ordinance reads, the sign at City Lake Park reads “Park area will be closed 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.” After some debate at the last board of aldermen meeting, City Attorney Mary Boner decided to plan on re-writing the ordinance to match the sign.
Police Clerk Erica Johnson brought the sign discrepancy to the city’s attention.
A couple weeks ago, a friend called Police Clerk Erica Johnson, and told her a neighbor’s son had been fishing, but the officer closed the gate earlier than he expected. They sent her a picture of the sign.
“So the officer was going by the ordnance and the fisher was going by the sign,” Johnson said.
“You need to change the sign,” acting mayor Richard Polete suggested at the meeting. But Boner argued that the hourly rate would be better for 5 a.m. anyway.
She said if left at 7 a.m., people may not be able to update it for their schedules without breaking the rules by accident.
To complicate matters the ordinance, section 250.010 City Parks and Recreation Areas, an alderman said, opens City Lake Park, Memorial Park, JC Ball Park, Warner Priest park and City Sports Complex at the same time. Boner suggested differentiating between the parks to resolve this.
The sign also says “walk-in fishing” is permitted after the gate is closed.
Boner said she will prepare the new ordinance to be signed at the next meeting, on Monday Sept. 22.
“It sounds like general consensus is on here and it’s okay to tweak the ordinance to line up with the signage for the City Lake park only,” Polete said.
