Daytona Beach considers pond fencing after deaths of 2 young boys

Daytona Beach city commissioners are considering requiring fences or other barriers around retention ponds following the drowning deaths of two young boys at an apartment complex.Kashh Williams, 3, and Elijah Hawkins, 5, reportedly got past a child lock on their mother's apartment door and wandered away more than a week before the commission's discussion. The boys later drowned in a retention pond at the complex."It's terrible for the family to lose a small child like that," Daytona Beach Commissioner Ken Strickland said.Proposed barriers around retention pondsCommissioners are scheduled to discuss whether to change city regulations to require fences or other barriers, including landscaping, around retention ponds.The city does not currently require fencing around all retention ponds. Under state rules, fencing is required in certain circumstances when a pond's banks exceed a specified slope.Strickland said he believes additional protections are necessary, even when pond banks are rela