McDonald Mayor Closes Basketball Courts After Years Of Profanity Complaints

MCDONALD (KDKA) – After years of complaints and warnings, the basketball courts are silent and empty at a McDonald park.

Mayor Terry Bennett had the Heritage Park basketball courts closed and the backboards taken down last week.

For years, Mayor Bennett has received complaints about teens and young adults using profanity. The latest complaint indicated those on the courts were not cleaning up their trash as well.

"The language is atrocious and we're not going to put up with it, and we've warned them, and it didn't do any good, so we took the rims down," Mayor Bennett said.

The mayor's office is even looking at issuing citations.

"They think it's their right to freedom of speech, what they're doing is harassing a lot of the other people who use this park, a lot of parents who use this park don't want their children to be exposed to this profanity," McDonald Council President Patrick Powell said.

It is unclear when and under what circumstances the basketball courts will be reopened.

I just think it's crazy and out of hand, I don't understand why they would do this to us, this is the only thing we have right here is the courts, so what are we supposed to do," Juwan Matthews said.

"You swear and smoke and stuff, and you're out of here," the mayor said.

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