NILES — A longtime resident addressed officials at a recent city council meeting, asking them to do more for the city’s children after noting inconsiderate behavior toward senior citizens.

During public comment, Bernie Profato, a Mill Creek Avenue resident, recalled speaking in front of officials twice before in reference to children playing in the street — a point he said was shot down by both the audience and council members.

Profato, a former police officer who retired after 33 years of service, said he has heard that children need to be kept away from video games and TV — which he said he agreed with “100%.”

“If this is going to be the case — and I’m going to be a little facetious about this — if you don’t want them by the TV, then say, what if they start shoplifting at the convenience store?” Profato said. “‘Well they’re away from the TV, well they’re violating the law by being in the streets, folks, we’ve got ordinances that say you can’t be in the streets at all.”

Profato said he wasn’t just speaking to council for his daughter’s sake, presenting them with a petition from a majority of Ohio Avenue’s residents.

Profato said he came in a little more frustrated than he had ever been throughout his time as a Niles resident, speaking out on behalf of senior citizens like himself.

“When you get senior citizens that are pulling out of their driveway and they honk their horn for these kids to move, and they turn around and say (expletive) and flip them off — that’s bullcrap,” Profato said. “And if we let that continue, it’s only going to get worse. Because one of these days, one of these people may get upset and say, ‘You know what? You’re not going to move? Then I’m going to run your butts over.'”

Throughout his travels as a sports referee throughout the United States, Profato recalled seeing that adults always looked out for the youth because they were going to grow up.

“Every one of these places I’ve talked about, there was trouble; they’ve had community service places for these kids to go to, they didn’t put up with it,” Profato said. “Look at McDonald, when I was a kid, McDonald had that blacktop, every night they were playing basketball over there, they were away from bothering the citizens — you have to give them an outlet.”

Council President Doug Sollitto said he agreed with children being able to get outside and play, but noted they’ve run into a problem where there isn’t enough places to go.

“We are contemplating, I believe, putting a so-called singular outdoor hoop at Waddell (Park),” Sollitto said. “Which, obviously, would affect that neighborhood because it’s right there and would allow everyone to go down to the park and play basketball.”

Mayor Steven Mientkiewicz said the area near Waddell’s old playground, close to the baseball field, is set to be redone.

The renovations will include a shuffleboard, a pickleball court and synthetic bocce court and life-sized chess and checkers, according to Mientkiewicz.

Profato said the issue went beyond being in the streets, reiterating the disrespect toward adults.

“If they’re disrespecting this law now, then what are they going to do later on, disrespecting the adults?” Profato said. “This deal in the streets, fine, but if they’re disrespecting the adults, they’re going to disrespect them somewhere else — they’re not just going to disrespect them on Ohio Avenue.”

Councilman Aaron Johnstone, D-2nd Ward, said Monday that Profato had previously come to council meetings asking them to ban basketball hoops near the tree lawn, noting that his approach at the recent meeting was a “different narrative.”

“I know Mr. Sollitto mentioned about putting hoops in Waddell Park, and maybe they’ll go down there — it may solve the problem,” Johnstone said. “When it comes to kids playing in the street, as long as it’s done safely, I don’t think council — I can’t speak for all of them, but it sounded as if council wasn’t going to act on that.

“Disorderly conduct and, you know, (being) disrespectful and stopping flow of traffic, all that other stuff that he mentioned this past time — if he had come in with that last time, maybe things would have been different, but he really didn’t.”