SIGNS WILL URGE PEOPLE NOT TO GIVE TO BEGGARS

In a continuing attempt to reduce panhandling in downtown Salt Lake City, signs will be placed next week in the windows of businesses asking customers to not give money to beggars.

Alison Gregersen, assistant director of the Downtown Alliance, said the signs tell people that if they feel they must help the homeless, panhandlers or transients they should donate to charitable organizations that need money to help people of this type.She told members of the board of the Downtown Retail Merchants Association that nobody is opposed to helping homeless people, but people are getting annoyed with panhandlers. Gregersen said the alliance also has a speaker's bureau to teach how to deal with panhandlers.

Skip Daynes, association president, said there should be some laws to deal with panhandling and still protect everyone's rights. The jails are overcrowded so judges are reluctant to adequately deal with the problem, he said.

Gregersen said the draft of an ordinance prohibiting aggressive panhandling is being rewritten in the mayor's office.