SUN PRAIRIE (WKOW) --- Some alders in Sun Prairie want to help keep panhandlers safe. An ordinance they say will do just that goes into effect Monday.
“All it's going to do to me is put me where I can't eat,” said Linnea Sandlin, who said she needs to panhandle in order to survive.
Sandlin said she panhandles on her favorite corner in Sun Prairie several days a week.
“I usually only come out for about 2 hours. But today is my last day.”
That's because an ordinance banning panhandling on medians in the city goes into effect Monday.
“It’s not banning panhandling. You can ask for money elsewhere, other places in the city that’s perfectly legal,” said City Council President Al Guyant.
Guyant said the Pedestrian Safety Ordinance is needed to help keep people safe.
“We've had a number of folks who were panhandling on the busy streets in the median safety islands. That was dangerous,” Guyant said. “I nearly hit two cars that had slow to contribute money to these folks. And so some of us wanted to get these folks off the median.”
“I think it's wrong that when people don't like something, that it can automatically make laws against it,” Sandlin said.
Sandlin can't understand why people like her are being singled out.
“The government don't have to support us. We're making our way through life.”
Sun Prairie has seen an increase in panhandling since Madison passed a similar ordinance. However Guyant said the ordinance is not an attempt to turn away panhandlers from Madison.
“It wasn't that they were coming from Madison, it was that there were more panhandlers in unsafe locations that prompted some of us on the council to pass this ordinance. But again it was keeping people out of the street, preventing cars from stopping suddenly to hand out money,” Guyant said.
People can still panhandle in other places around the city.
“Such as downtown Sun Prairie square, Cannery Square, that would be a perfectly legal and acceptable place to solicit if they wish to do so,” Guyant said.
As for Sandlin, she already has a new spot picked out.
“I've actually got two corners that I’m thinking about trying. I don't know if I’m going to get in trouble, because the corners are not on their map.”
Guyant said police will initially hand out warnings. But repeat offenders could be fined.
For more on this story: http://www.wkow.com/story/36602366/2017/10/15/pedestrian-safety-ordinance-goes-into-affect-monday-in-sun-prairie