Pokemon Go players overrun Kimberly Point Park

NEENAH - Once a quiet gathering spot, Kimberly Point Park is suddenly anything but quiet.

The park is brimming these days with Pokemon Go players, taking Neenah officials by surprise and frustrating city residents who are feeling squeezed out of a park that they have long enjoyed for its serenity and beauty.

Since the launch of the augmented reality game on July 6, players have flocked to the 3.5-acre Neenah park because it's considered a hot spot, renowned among Pokemon players for its PokeStops, or places where users can collect in-game items.

"This has just made it where it's virtually impossible to get into the neighborhood in the evening," said Richard Mosbacher, who lives near the park. "It's just a continuous string of cars going around in a circle trying to find a parking place closer.

"It's very weird. It's just flat weird," he added.

City officials are struggling to deal with a park that is suddenly oversaturated.

"The good news is people are using the park," said Neenah Mayor Dean Kaufert. "The bad news is that park wasn't designed or built for that many people at one time."

Cars pack the parking area day and night, and garbage cans overflow. Bathrooms require vigorous cleaning and about an acre of grass will need reseeding. At park closing time, scores of Pokemon players remain transfixed by their phones.

Neighbors have complained about trespassing and discarded cigarette butts.

"I have never seen anything like this," said Michael Kading, Neenah's parks and recreation director.

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On Monday morning, more than two dozen people populated the park's northern edge, some sitting on benches enjoying the fresh air, others staring at their phones. At other times, dozens more gather at the park, most in search of Pokemon.

Neenah's David Sandvick was among the players at the park on Monday.

"I never thought I was going to do it," he said of playing Pokemon Go.

Sandvick, standing next to his 4-year-old son, Kaden, first came to the park a week earlier to try out the game.

"I got talked into doing it from him," he said, referencing Kaden, "and we started doing it together."

Neenah Police Chief Kevin Wilkinson said "most" players have been cooperative when asked to respect park hours.

"It's not like the (Pokemon Go) crowd is a bunch of rowdy, fighting drunks," Wilkinson said in an email. "For the most part, they pay little attention to what is going on around them."

The mobile game uses a phone's GPS and camera to allow players to capture Pokemon in physical locations. Kimberly Point Park and Appleton's Houdini Plaza have been two of the Fox Cities' busiest locations, both becoming hot spots that are drawing players from miles around.

Jennifer Stevenson, marketing and communications director of the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass, located near Kimberly Point Park, called the park "a zoo."

"We can tell there's more people around," she said. "But for us, it really hasn't been an issue. We're not in the main traffic pattern for it."

In other communities, like Kimberly and Combined Locks, policing issues related to the game have been scarce.

"Obviously, there's more kids out at night, more kids that appear to be wandering around," said Fox Valley Metro Police Department Community Support Officer Mike Lambie. "But our officers were educated on what Pokemon Go was quick enough, and our community is for whatever reason familiar enough with it.

"It's the same thing that popped up when Geocaching was very popular," he added.

Appleton Police Sgt. Dave Lund said the department has seen "very few issues."

"Aside from a huge influx of people into Houdini Plaza, we haven’t seen trespassing, alcohol or littering issues," Lund said in an email. He said officers have responded to an occasional suspicious person call, which turned out to be someone playing the game.

'Managing the chaos'

In recent weeks, Neenah increased the amount of signs near Kimberly Point Park reminding park users about park rules and hours.

"Use your 'instinct,'" advises a digital sign along Wisconsin Avenue. "Don't catch and drive."

Kaufert said city officials have met regularly to discuss the ongoing issue.

"It is taking us some staff time," he said.

Kaufert said his office has received emails asking the city to ask the game's developers to remove Kimberly Point Park from the game. Developers removed Oak Hill Cemetery from the game after players entered the site during funeral services, he said. Pokestops also were reportedly removed from the 9/11 Memorial in New York City last month.

"(Neighbors) are used to having this quiet, serene, beautiful place where people would come and sit on a park bench and enjoy the boats and the pelicans," Kaufert said.

The city has hesitated to add more garbage cans to the park. Limiting the amount of garbage cans encourages park users to take their trash with them, Kading said.

"I think the greater damage is really perception," he said. "People think we're not doing anything. Pokemon in and of itself is a legal activity. We cannot do anything to hinder the game. It's managing the chaos that's been created by the game."

Kading said the city has “mostly solved” parking issues at the park with more signage and curb painting.

Kevin Lind, a 16-year-old Pokemon player from Appleton, said he'll keep playing the game as long as it's fun — likely another month.

"It's cool because it gets people out of their house, and they're not sitting around all day," he said, briefly looking up from his phone while playing the game at the not-so-quiet park on a beautiful Monday morning.

Ethan Safran: 920-996-7267, or esafran@postcrescent.com; on Twitter @EthanSafran