Under a picnic table at John C. Harris Park in Meridian, you’ll find a stack of used fireworks, a few feet away from an overturned sign that reads “park closes at dark.” 

“Daily public nuisances” in the park, including random gunfire, discarded trash — including used condoms — and vandalism are ongoing problems at the park, according to Queshaun Sudbury, who has lived on 30th Avenue since 2012. 

Sudbury says some days, a large number of people will visit the park, parking their cars in the nearby neighborhood just off 29th Avenue.

“When the weather is good… they jam-pack the block,” Sudbury said. “When it was really bad, they would park in my driveway. I would like to see people stop driving from outside of Lauderdale County and parking on my block.

“These are not young guys,” Sudbury said. “They are not children, and when they show up, the kids are basically crowded out.”

The parking situation has also resulted in disagreements between Sudbury and park visitors.

“The people are obnoxious and confrontational,” he said. “If I try to talk to them, they want to dare me to do something about it…I don’t want to have to have those conversations.”

Sudbury said he has called the police at least a dozen times since 2012, but he rarely sees results.

A good start, he said, would be placing a surveillance camera in the park to help deter crime.

Police Chief Benny Dubose said there has been discussion about placing cameras in larger parks such as Sammy Davidson, Northeast and Bonita Lakes.

“As far as the smaller parks, we have not specifically looked at them because there are so many of them,” Dubose said.

Dubose also said there aren’t a lot of calls for police services in the area.

“We have not received a whole lot of complaints, but if [Sudbury] lives there, I’m sure he sees more than we do.”

And as for the parking situation, Dubose said drivers can park anywhere on the street as long as there is not a visible “no parking” sign.

Dubose has asked officers, however, to monitor the parking situation more closely.

Meanwhile, Sudbury doesn’t see an end in sight.

“It’s a community park, and it should be used for the community,” he said. “If you don’t live within walking distance of the park, you should not be here.”

Ward 5 City Councilman Weston Lindemann said the recent firing of  Parks and Recreation Director Kelvin McGruder has made it difficult to address concerns with local parks.

“Our local government is hardly running at a functional level,” Lindemann said. “It’s really an executive issue, and there’s nothing I can do about it at this time.”

Lindemann said McGruder was “getting quotes for a playground and a security camera” at Harris park, but that ended when McGruder was suspended and subsequently fired.