Telegraph file photo A resident of Currier Road took this photo depicting the heavy traffic and tight parking situation that develops near the entrance to the Wildcat Falls Conservation Area.

MERRIMACK – Bringing first-hand reports to the Town Council – backed up by photographic evidence – of illegal parking, vandalism, trash dumping, alcohol consumption, public urination and even sexual activity in parked vehicles in and around the Wildcat Falls Conservation Area, neighbors were granted their request that the council close the area in its entirety.

“I feel it’s time to close Wildcat Falls,” Brenna Hansen, a Currier Road resident and one of several who spoke at Thursday’s council meeting, told members.

“It’s not just annoying at this point. It’s a very dangerous situation, the volume of traffic, the speeding … my kids cannot walk the dog or ride their bikes for fear of getting hit by speeding cars,” Hansen said.

The topic, a late arrival to the agenda for Thursday’s council meeting, dominated the discussion period, and when all voices were heard councilors voted to close the area for at least the time being.

Signs have been going up and police are increasing patrols around the entrance to the conservation area, which leads to a parking lot that fills up quickly, forcing visitors to park along Currier Road and other, smaller streets that make up the neighborhood most impacted by the issues that come with large, sometimes unruly and discourteous crowds.

While issues over parking, speeding, trash accumulation and vandalism have surfaced now and then over several years, neighbors say the recent spike in illegal and unsavory activity has reached alarming proportions, especially among families with young children and the elderly folks who have lived there for decades.

While closing the entire conservation area “was not an easy decision,” Town Councilors said in a brief statement announcing their vote, “the health and safety of our residents, as well as the preservation of the town’s parks and recreation areas, remain our top priorities.”

The immediacy of the issue prompted Council Chairman Tom Koenig to amend Thursday’s meeting agenda to include “discussion of conservation areas and parks in town.”

He referred to Wildcat Falls, but said in the agenda item that “other areas, including Watson Park and Wasserman Park,” may also be considered for similar action.

Those two parks didn’t come up for discussion on Thursday.

Currier Road begins at Baboosic Lake Road and ends at the entrance to the conservation area, where it becomes a dirt road leading to the parking lot.

Also adjacent to the entrance is Fir Street, a loop that runs off Currier Road and rejoins it at the entrance.

Amy Simoneau, who lives on Fir Street, told councilors that Currier Road is the “only route in and out of the conservation area,” and its intersection with Fir Street is often packed with cars parked on either side of the street.

Simoneau said neighbors’ concerns were first raised when the town enlarged the parking lot in 2011. Neighbors opposed that move, gaining 344 signatures on a petition and sending out “a multitude of calls and letters” aimed at preserving the area.

Ever since, volunteers have continued removing trash from the parking lot and the trails that wind through the conservation area to Wildcat Falls itself, a site along the Souhegan River popular with swimmers.

Some residents “got discouraged” and stopped calling police when they observed illegal activity or saw a problem developing, Simoneau said.

“They didn’t want to be a nag,” she said.

Hansen, the Currier Road resident who also spoke, said elderly residents are reluctant even to ask visitors to not park on their lawns.

“They fear a confrontation,” Hansen said, adding that she once witnessed a car pull over and park and the passenger jump out and urinate on a mailbox post.

Verbal requests to drivers to slow down are often met with obscene gestures or words, Hansen added.

In a Telegraph story that ran in late April, several weeks into the stay-at-home order Gov. Chris Sununu issued in March, police Chief Denise Roy said the department experienced “an uptick in calls” regarding parking issues along Currier Road.

She said police received about five to 10 calls a day on average, representing an increase that stemmed mainly from people parking in front of people’s homes.

“There’s a parking lot, but the parking lot only holds so many cars,” Roy said at the time. As a result, “people have been spilling into the neighborhood” to park, which, although they were parked legally, was causing “angst for some of the neighbors.”

To longtime resident Ursula Gall, who told The Telegraph she has lived in the neighborhood since 1963, parking is an issue, but it’s how the drivers get to those parking spots that leaves her shaking her head.

“It’s unbelievable, the speeding down Currier Road,” Gall said, adding that the “situation has gotten out of control” since the stay-at-home order went into effect.

“I have never ever seen the cars backed up that far,” said, referring to the parking situation.

She said she understands that “nobody can stop people from coming,” but suggested the town prohibit parking on both sides of the road.

Still, it’s the moving cars, not the parked ones, that worry Gall the most.

“When I see them coming down Currier Road, it’s scary, it’s scary,” she said.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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