Downtown Belleville park that attracts homeless people will be fenced off for dogs

Officials painted a disturbing picture of a public park in downtown Belleville at the City Council meeting on Monday night.

They described homeless people sleeping on benches and having sex in the gazebo. Public urination, defecation and lewd acts. Drug abuse and drunkenness. Needles, food, cigarette butts and other trash. Fights, panhandling and harassment.

Police Chief Matt Eiskant reported that officers have responded to 390 calls at Ever and Anon Park since 2017, including 169 last year, in addition to time spent dealing with problems discovered on routine patrols.

“Is that the image we want for Belleville downtown?” asked Chris Rothweiler, alderman for Ward 6. “The answer is ‘no.’ So while I don’t have the perfect solution, what I know is this: What we’re doing now is not working. We have to do something else.”

The discussion ended with 14 aldermen unanimously voting to install a fence around the East Main Street and Mascoutah Avenue property and to convert it into a dog park accessible only to paying members. Alderwomen Carmen Duco and Jamie Eros were absent.

The Parks and Recreation Board had recommended the action. Before voting, the City Council amended the motion to clarify that the park could be rented out for concerts, weddings and other special events.

“The park is not going to be fenced off so no one can ever get in there to use it,” Rothweiler said. “That’s not what’s going to happen.”

During special events, dogs will have to run and play catch at Belleville’s other members-only dog park, which is part of Rotary Park, between North Sixth Street and Richland Creek.

The city of Belleville website highlights Ever and Anon Park’s “wedding gazebo with rose garden.”

“This quaint little park is located on East Main Street and Mascoutah Avenue in beautiful downtown Belleville,” it states. “The beautiful gazebo with the rose garden backdrop is an excellent place to hold an outdoor wedding.”

The motion approved by the City Council Monday night stated that Ever and Anon Park would become a controlled-access, membership-based park “to include a dog park.”

It was worded that way because, during the planning process, some local residents expressed interest in becoming members if the city acquired additional property at the site and installed playground equipment, according to Jason Poole, interim director of parks and recreation.

Supporters and opponents

Several neighbors and business owners spoke in favor of the dog park as an idea worth trying to clean up and improve safety at Ever and Anon Park. Abend Street resident Barb Swantner said a fence could be removed later if the city came up with a better plan.

But the proposal also faced opposition. In the week leading up to Monday night’s meeting, 59 people signed an online Change.org petition titled “Say NO to a dog park at Ever and Anon Park.”

“There are better uses for this park,” one signer wrote. “This tiny area should be an inviting green space with natural design elements for kiddos to play on/with, and spaces for Belleville locals (and visitors!) to sit and enjoy local eats and drinks.”

The petition was organized by Kathy Mordini, a real-estate agent and developer who’s been negotiating with the city to purchase and renovate a vacant 1887 brick storefront on Mascoutah Avenue and turn it into an small-business incubator and event center.

The petition description suggests that the downtown park be used for vendor markets, art shows, theater productions, musical performances, family movie nights and other activities to provide entertainment for the public and serve as an economic-development tool.

“We are asking that the City Council give the space a chance to evolve into the lovely park it used to be,” the description states.

Two people spoke against the dog park at Monday night’s meeting, including critical-care nurse Sandy Alvarez and software developer and Ward 5 aldermanic candidate Michael Hagberg. They argued for a more comprehensive approach that deals with root causes of the problem.

Hagberg said churches and other organizations want to do more to help Belleville’s homeless population but that city restrictions prohibit it.

“I just really do not believe that putting in a dog park, a fenced-in area that’s available only to those who can afford it, is going to solve the situation with the homeless and the problems that they’re bringing with them,” Alvarez said.

Former site of Hotel Tiemann

“Ever and anon” is an old-fashioned way of saying now and then.

The park was developed in 2000 by Belleville Heritage Society, with backing from the Kern family, as something of an entrance to Old Belleville Historic District, according to Jack LeChien, current chairman of Belleville Historic Preservation Commission.

The land became available after the 1998 demolition of a three-story apartment building that originated as Hanover House in 1862 and later served as the Hotel Tiemann.

“Old Belleville Historic District is an architectural time capsule of Belleville’s growth since the 1850s,” reads a bronze marker in the park, which is about a quarter of an acre.

The new dog park will be patterned off the Rotary Park dog park, which has about 200 members, according to Poole, who also serves as director of public works.

Residents pay $30 to $54 a year, depending on how many dogs they own ($54 to $78 for non-residents). Proof of rabies vaccination is required. Visitors can get a five-day pass for a “nominal” fee, Poole said.

Officials plan to install a black aluminum fence at Ever and Anon Park that’s five or six feet high and made to look like wrought iron. The design hasn’t been finalized.

Mayor Patty Gregory announced on Monday night that St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern has offered to pay for dog-park development. She said it was “common courtesy” to invite him to a Belleville Main Street planning meeting with city officials, local merchants and Abend Street residents, given his family ties to Ever and Anon Park.

“The rumor that this was done behind closed doors and that we had an anonymous donor that we don’t want to let out is false,” Gregory said.

‘Not against homeless people’

Rothweiler and Ward 6 Alderwoman Mary Stiehl held another meeting for neighborhood residents on Feb. 28 to discuss the dog-park proposal. LeChien, who lives about five blocks away, thought it sounded as good as any other idea he had heard.

LeChien said Ever and Anon Park has been underutilized for years due to its antisocial and illegal activities.

Lincoln Theatre owner Dave Schoenborn made a similar point at the City Council meeting Monday night. He said downtown Belleville is full of dog-walkers and that a highly visible dog park would signal to visitors that it’s a progressive-minded community.

Attorney and former Congressman Bill Enyart, who lives on Abend Street, also spoke in favor of a dog park.

Last summer, during a debate in which he opposed Mordini’s Mascoutah Avenue project, Enyart told aldermen that he and his wife, former St. Clair County judge Annette Eckert, were out walking their dog one day when they saw a man urinating behind the park’s gazebo.

“People want to get out in the neighborhood,” LeChien said. “But when you have that going on, you kind of stay away from the area, especially if you have small kids.”

LeChien said Belleville’s East End Park is much larger, close to downtown, available for public use and better suited for family recreation with its playground equipment and tennis courts.

At Monday night’s meeting, Chief Eiskant told aldermen that his support for fencing around Ever and Anon Park isn’t a condemnation of all people who are unhoused.

“We’re not against homeless people,” he said later in an interview. “Belleville is a very community- and volunteer-oriented city. We help people. We have community assistance programs to help with housing. We work with clergy. We do everything we can for the homeless. We want to help them.

“But the homeless we’ve been dealing with in the park, probably 90% of them, are people who commit a large number of crimes, and we just can’t have that.”