"YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE"

You have to love small town newspapers. I call the Union Leader, the largest newspaper in New Hampshire, a small town paper because New Hampshire isn’t that big. Anyway, I say you have to love them because of stuff like this. An article appeared about a town reviving a curfew, yet never is the town named. I know it’s a North Country community of 2,600 with a broken fire whistle, but that’s it. I’ll link to it here and copy the whole thing in case they figure it out and go fix it.

Whistle repaired, curfew pushed

By LORNA COLQUHOUN, Union Leader Correspondent
The Union Leader
Updated: 11:17 p.m. ET Feb. 22, 2004

“Feb. 23 - There are those of a certain age in this town who well remember when their nights of teenage fun abruptly came to a halt when the fire whistle sounded at 9 p.m.

"I remember, growing up, that when the whistle would blow, if you were under 16, you could not be on the street," said Lorna Aldrich, who is now the acting town manager in this North Country community of about 2,600. "That was it - you had to be in."

At some point, the fire whistle broke down and the curfew fell by the wayside.

Today, however, that whistle has long been fixed and when talk turned to reviving the curfew, officials discovered that the ordinance had never been voted upon by residents.
So when voters go to town meeting in a couple of weeks, they will decide whether to put the ordinance officially on the books.

If adopted, the proposed curfew would require youngsters under the age of 16 to be off the street and out of public places after 9 p.m., unless accompanied by an adult or taking part in athletic, social, educational or religious events.

The second part of the curfew charges parents with the responsibility of knowing where their minor children are and not allowing them to be out unsupervised after 9 p.m. and before 6 a.m.

The penalty, under the proposed ordinance, would have police take a child home and the parents notified of the first offense.

"Upon any subsequent violation . . . parents or guardians shall be guilty of a misdemeanor," the proposed ordinance reads.

The revival of the ordinance, Aldrich said, would be to counter some increasing loitering in town, as well as vandalism. "Times have changed," she said. "Back then, both parents weren't working, but we are a mill town and we now have families doing shift work."
Aldrich couldn't predict whether the curfew would be revived with a vote of town meeting on March 9.

She did note, however, that when a public hearing was held on the proposed ordinance a couple of weeks ago, "only a couple of people" came out for it.