A shooting that left two men wounded in Centennial Park in Davenport a week ago is one reason the city has now closed off a portion of the area during overnight hours.

Signs went up Thursday advertising that Centennial Park south of the railroad tracks on Marquette Street and Beiderbecke Drive is closed from midnight to

5 a.m., except for active fishing and boat launchings and retrievals.

"There have been some congregating of folks for something other than general recreational purposes," said Davenport City Administrator Craig Malin. "The skate park and basketball courts are lit up at night and filled with people actively using them and using them as they are intended."

The darkness in the area between the skate park and basketball courts and the river have attracted an unwelcomed element, he added.

"We're going to continue to expand recreational activities into that area and eventually it will be lit up for people enjoying themselves in a healthy way," Malin said.

Using the bike trail, fishing and boating are legal activities, Malin said.

Citing city ordinance, Davenport police can now charge someone with being in the park after hours.

"The broad challenge is that it is very difficult to enforce a loitering law in parks," Malin said. "Part of a park's use is loitering. You're supposed to loiter in a park and enjoy the area."

However, police needed a better enforcement tool for keeping Centennial Park safe, he added. Hence, the new park hours. He reiterated that the skate park and basketball courts are not affected.

The park is in Alderman Bill Boom's 3rd Ward. He announced the new park hours, which was the recommendation of the Public Safety Committee, at Wednesday's City Council meeting.

"We've been talking about the problems down there for about six months," Boom said.

Boom mentioned problems with people drag racing, people drinking and leaving broken glass bottles all over the roadway and jogging paths, and people simply congregating down there for no purpose.

"There have been times when there were 150 or more people hanging out down there and only 50 cars," he said.

One of the last straws was the shooting at the park early on the morning of June 11, he said.

"We tried to give the situation a chance to correct itself, but when it appeared that was not working then we implemented the new hours," Boom said.

"We wanted to maintain the park as open to everyone, but that's no longer possible at this time," he said. "So, until we build the park out it looks like this is going to have to be our policy."

He said the park is now part the police department's Crime Control Strategy, or CCS, which means that patrol and undercover officers are keeping a close eye on the location for crime.