BELFAST – How do you know if you're within 1,000 feet of a city-operated park? And does that place have anything to do with the park itself?

Variations on these questions led city councilors to table a request recently from Belfast Police Chief Mike McFadden who asked the Council to declare the city's parks "drug-free safe zones."

Addressing the Council on Oct. 16, McFadden likened the designation to federal and state laws that increase penalties for drug sales near school, and said in his experience those programs have worked.

But many of the councilors felt that adding parks to the list was too much, particularly given a provision that would extended the drug-free zone 1,000 feet beyond park boundaries. 

Click to view a map of showing city parks and the 1,000-foot buffer 

Councilor Mike Hurley spoke of his two nephews, who are in federal prison on drug charges. Seeing what happened to them, he said, opened his eyes to the "War on Drugs," which he called a "complete failure."

"It's an idea that's run amok, that we're going to solve our problems somehow by putting people in jail," he said.

Hurley took issue with the philosophy that steeper penalties are a deterrant to drug use or sales. Additionally, he questioned the sense of the 1,000-foot provision.

"That means you catch somebody in the parking lot of the Shrine Club or the hospital and they have increased fines," he said.

Councilor Nancy Hamilton expressed some support for the drug free zone designation, saying that when she lived near City Park, she saw the kind of car activity at night that suggested drug deals. As a consequence, she said, she wouldn't walk her dog there.

Others supported the idea of trying to reduce drug use, but the 1,000-foot provision was a sticking point for Councilor Marina Delune, a point of confusion for Councilor Eric Sanders, and Councilor Roger Lee called it "nuts," expressing a similar view to Hurley that the buffer zone would cover areas with no direct relation the parks, including much of downtown.

The police chief didn't disagree.

"It effectively eliminates downtown Belfast as a place to deal drugs," he said. 

Asked what the increase in penalties would be, McFadden said these would be negotiated by the District Attorney's office.

Hamilton asked to postpone a decision until the Council could hear from Waldo County Deputy District Attorney Eric Walker. The Council agreed, tabling the question until a future meeting.

Penobscot Bay Pilot reporter Ethan Andrews can be reached at ethanandrews@penbaypilot.com