Daytona Beach Weighs Fencing Requirement for Retention Ponds After Two Boys Drown

Daytona Beach city commissioners are considering whether to require fences or other barriers around retention ponds, following the drowning deaths of two young boys at an apartment complex.

The boys, 3-year-old Kashh Williams and 5-year-old Elijah Hawkins, reportedly got past a child lock on their mother's apartment door and wandered away. They later drowned in a retention pond at the complex. The commission's discussion comes more than a week after the incident.

Commissioners are scheduled to consider changing city regulations so that fences or other barriers, including landscaping, would be required around retention ponds. At present, the city does not require fencing around all such ponds. State rules call for fencing in certain circumstances, when a pond's banks exceed a specified slope.

Commissioner Ken Strickland said he believes more protection is needed, even where pond banks are relatively gentle. "Even if there's very little slope, small children unsupervised fall in there," he said, adding that the risk makes fencing worthwhile. "It's terrible for the family to lose a small child like that," he said.

The discussion could represent a first step toward new requirements for property owners and developers. If commissioners back the idea, they could direct city staff to draft an ordinance setting new safety standards.

Strickland said he would support fencing even if it proved unattractive or expensive. "If we need to put up an ugly fence and pay for it and have to look at it, it's worth that to me personally to save any children," he said.

Meanwhile, the investigation into the boys' deaths is continuing. No charges had been filed at the time of the report. Police Chief Jakari Young said investigators had found no signs of foul play so far.

The information in this report was based on details shared by the City of Daytona Beach, Commissioner Strickland and Chief Young.