Within recent years there has been a growing concern with teens hanging out in spaces such as quick check and McDonalds in our town, businesses, parents, and the kids are all fed up. Whether it's just the kids hanging out or disrupting these businesses it has been an issue from day one.  There has been times where the stores would close their bathrooms and restrict sitting areas, some stores have even banned children from entering without a parent. There has been times where police were called to get these children off the store property even. 

The cause of most of these issues is that children simply have nowhere to hang out, especially during the colder months like fall and winter. There are no indoor activities for children in our town, most of the children that hang out at stores like quick check are there waiting for parents to pick them up and the others are trying to hang out with their friends but as the temperature drops so do  the options for hang out spaces. In summer and spring they have parks and are able to walk around but the colder months make that difficult. These kids need somewhere to go and hang out.

Ive asked parents and kids what they think the issue and resolution would be and nearly every time they agreed when I said kids have no recreational spaces. The issue isn't disruptive kids its the fact that they have no clue what to do after school. Towns like Washington have "teen centers" and other recreational activities that I personally have seen work wonders. Kids would go to said teen center everyday after school to either hang out or wait to be picked up, all while having things to do.

Im suggesting Hackettstown build either more recreational areas like arcades, roller rinks, even just places where you can go and sit down to charge your phone and talk. Or like Washington a "teen center" with multiple activities in one place. It would benefit the businesses being disrupted by these bored teens while giving not just the kids but the entire community places to go and things to do. 

Recreational areas wouldn't just give the teens of Hackettstown something to keep them busy either, I believe that just like other areas near us people from neighboring towns would even come to enjoy these things. So it would keep kids busy after school, bring more people into our town, and also give everyone a chance to meet some new people. 

So in the best interest of Hackettstown and all surrounding communities sign this petition in hopes we can get some new recreational areas.