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DAZE WORK: Park vandalism a black eye for civic pride
From spray-painted graffiti to trashed shelterhouses and damaged restrooms, vandalism has been a persistent problem at Greencastle city parks for decades.
Perhaps the most egregious over the years was destruction of the new rim and backboard less than 24 hours after their installation at the basketball court adjacent to the Robe-Ann Park tennis courts about 35 years ago. Instigated by young men old enough to know better, it came during a period when the city was literally spending more money on the dead than the living, as one former city councilman put it, looking at a 1980s budget. And that’s true. For years the city spent more money manicuring the grounds at Forest Hill Cemetery than it did on upkeep and programming at Robe-Ann Park.
But Robe-Ann Park isn’t the only facility in the crosshairs of vandalism. It’s been true at Big Walnut Sports Park, too.
The glass backboard at the sports park courts has been destroyed and replaced three times to the tune of $1,200 a shot. Why someone feels compelled to throw a rock or a hunk of concrete through a glass backboard makes no sense.
Sadly, the courts and backboard were donated by the A Kinetic Change group, created by Mark and Julie Carr and their family in memory of son Keith, who died in a tragic accident while on a college trip to Italy. It’s like adding insult to injury.
It’s all enough to make your blood boil.
Disgraceful. Despicable. Disrespectful.
That brings us to Robe-Ann Park and the end of October.
With surveillance cameras now in place at Robe-Ann, you would think the situation would be better. But recently the cameras captured some nefarious activity at shelterhouse No. 5 at the northeast end of the park. Two men were arrested in separate incidents of drug use, including one snorting a substance off a picnic table.
But the latest act caught on tape is perhaps the most troubling. It appears the perpetrator was a nine-year-old -- let that sink in a second -- a nine-year-old boy was caught on surveillance video damaging the door and new paint job at the site of the ongoing renovations at the Robe-Ann restrooms.
Apparently miffed at finding the restrooms locked and refusing to use the nearby port-a-let, the youngster kicked the door and scratched it. Since it had been freshly painted, the work had to redone in a situation City Clerk-Treasurer Lynda Dunbar said could approach $1,000. “It’s not chump change,” she stressed.
The boy also reportedly destroyed the sign that detailed the renovation work and -- in the ultimate indignation -- finished his little hissy fit by urinating on the restroom door.
“Did he know he was on camera?” Park Board member Doug Hutchison asked after hearing Assistant Park Director Chrysta Snellenberger’s report at the November Park Board meeting
“Oh, he knew,” Snellenberger assured. “When he was done, he flipped off the camera.”
Again, just nine years old.
The boy has been “trespassed from the park for a year,” Snellenberger reported, meaning he won’t be allowed to visit the park and will be summarily removed if found on the premises.
Obviously a juvenile, the boy is known to ride his bike over to Robe-Ann from his residence a couple blocks away. He tends to frequent the skatepark area. How it will be policed to keep him away remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, Snellenberger asks that anyone who sees anything suspicious going on at the park contact the park office or call central dispatch.
So it has come to this: We have to ban children from park premises because they can’t control themselves on public property that’s paid for by you and me.
Does the punishment fit the crime? Restitution for the restroom repairs and clean-up work is probably more appropriate than a ban. Whether that can occur is uncertain without the situation moving forward toward some kind of prosecution -- of a nine-year-old. Certainly the police and the prosecutor have more important things to do.
If this were my kid, I know I’d be utterly embarrassed and would already be administering my own punishment. Let’s hope that’s happening in this case, although from what Snellenberger told the Park Board, I doubt it. When young vandals are caught, she routinely asks that if they are ordered to do community service that they be assigned to her direction. Unfortunately, she said they can’t do that unless the parents agree.
Sounds like a perfect time for some parental guidance.