Drug deals, shattered windshields and spray-painted houses along Westminster?s Pennsylvania Avenue have prompted residents to demand a curfew for teenagers.
“When I first moved up here, it was nice,” said Dennis Blevins, a tow-truck driver who has lived in the 100 block for five years. “Now it?s totally different.”
He and many other residents say they?re pleased the Westminster City Council renewed its pledge to clean up the street Monday night.
But the residents want a curfew that would require anyone younger than 18 to be supervised by an adult if outside after 10 p.m.
Residents say teenage drug dealers run wild along the street after midnight and early in the morning.
The street lies between the tot lot and softball fields of Dutterer Family Park and the golf club and classrooms of McDaniel College and several blocks south of Westminster?s historic Main Street.
“It?s a beautiful neighborhood that needs some help,” said Jerrold Sheeler, a contractor who lives across from Blevins.
“Anytime something happens out here on Pennsylvania Avenue, they put cops out here,” Blevins said. “Other than that, we don?t see enough.”
But the problems persist.
Sheeler remembers that when he moved to Westminster in 2002, drug dealers would deliver their pitches alongside his 100-year-old home, and he would chase them away with a gun.
A few houses away from Sheeler?s, a man was shot and murdered in December 2005 over $500 worth of cocaine.
Police have vowed to station more officers in the area, and Tuesday afternoon, two cruisers were parked on the street less than a mile from each other.
And two drug raids last week netted seven arrests.
A committee of nearly 30 residents was formed in 2002 to come up with ways to improve the area, and since then, several rental properties have been registered with the city and their tenants better screened, said Thomas Beyard, Westminster?s director of planning and public works.
He said he hopes to form another committee of about 15 residents to revamp renewal efforts.
