By a vote of 5 to 3, the Rome City Commission voted to table a proposed change in the curfew ordinance Monday night. 

There have been a large number of issues in Downtown Rome involving unsupervised juveniles – with the latest being on August 14th when several fights broke out.

A recommendation from the public safety committee, which had the backing of Rome Police Denise Downer-McKinney – would have lowered the curfew for anyone 17 and under from 11:00 to 10:00pm.  Some of those on the commission expressed concerns about the curfew applying to the entire city instead of just downtown;  others wanted to get more input from a task force that is being formed.

Commissioner Jim Bojo made the motion to table the ordinance amendment.

“We have to get the parents involved, we have to get the task force involved, and we have to get a lot of things involved,” he said.  “I don’t think changing the curfew from 11:00 to 10:00pm is going to solve our problem.  I don’t believe that for one second.  I do believe there needs to be a curfew.”

Commissioner Bonny Askew said hell be working to schedule the first meeting of the task force, to begin looking at some possible solutions.

(WRGA/www.wrgarome.com)