HAWAI'I KAI — Yellow and black graffiti marks the bathroom walls, storage sheds and drainage ditches at Koko Head District Park.

It's been a constant battle, waged every day by city park workers and volunteers who paint over the graffiti, and vandals who strike at night, long after the tennis players, basketball leaguers and baseball organizers have gone home.

Volunteers from youth baseball, basketball and tennis leagues help city park workers clean up the graffiti. Now, they are asking for the community's support to close the park after 10 p.m.

"When the leagues leave, that's when the trouble happens," said Nick Wong, a Hawai'i Kai resident and Hawai'i Kai Youth Baseball League organizer. "The graffiti is just more work for the city parks workers and takes away from the real work they have to do."

Last week, Wong and others approached the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board about closing the park after the last tennis player leaves.

No decision has been made yet to discuss the matter.

Talk of closing Koko Head District Park's 59 acres with its four ballparks, tennis and basketball courts and a gymnasium has come up before. The most recent debate was in 2001, when the neighborhood board voted to keep the park open, despite reports of vandalism and loitering. The board worried that a gate would deter police from patrolling the area.

This time around, the closure, which amounts to a sign stating the park's hours and perhaps a gate, would have to come back before the board, said Mary Houghton, a Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board member.

Signs would give police the authority to stop people and ask them to leave. Without a park-closure sign, police need probable cause to stop someone.

"It would be better for us," said Bob Clark, a tennis player. "If the park is closed, our nets stand a better chance of being there in the morning and our wind screens won't be painted."

About 90 O'ahu parks use parking-lot restrictions to effectively close at night.

The city Department of Parks and Recreation leaves the decision to close a community park in the hands of the elected members of the neighborhood board, said Lester Chang, director of parks and recreation. The city will wait for word from the neighborhood board, he said.

"It's very serious," said Houghton, who chairs the board's park and recreation committee. "The residents have first-hand knowledge. It's time to address the issue."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.