Uhrichsville mayor vows to find, prosecute park vandals
UHRICHSVILLE (WJER) (May 16, 2022) – City leaders are considering beefing up security at the park after finding vulgar words and other inappropriate markings on its pavilions and playground equipment.
Mayor Mark Haney says vandals have tagged them twice just this spring, and it has to stop.
“We shouldn’t tolerate it. We’ve got hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in that equipment there. We’d like to expand that area, offer more of it. What do I do? Do we take the equipment out? I don’t think that’s fair to the little kids.”
He discussed the issue during last week’s city council meeting, telling members he had instructed police to patrol the area more frequently.
“Chief and I have had those discussions, and they are making more rounds down there but we can’t figure out the time of day or night that it’s happening. The sad part is I ran kids off there the other day that were on the equipment that were teenagers. I won’t say what the one girl told me, but she didn’t know who I was.”
Haney was planning to meet with a security company the following day to see about installing some additional cameras at the facility, which has 14 of them already.
“We’re going to have to invest significant money to add more cameras to a park that we all grew up here and never had these issues.”
He says if he finds out the culprits are minors, their parents will be held accountable.
