A very sad story about the continuing vandalism of one of the regions great community parks; and one calling for an increase in regional law enforcement whose mission includes regular patrols of our parks and Parkways.
An excerpt.
Park vandalism a wake-up call
Official hopes that seeing the damage will make Arden residents 'more watchful.'
By Bill Lindelof -- Bee Staff Writer Published 12:01 am PDT Thursday, August 17, 2006
It had been several days since some of the worst vandalism in at least eight years occurred in Arden Park.
Glass from broken liquor bottles in the parking lot had been cleaned up and loudspeakers that had been ripped from their moorings on poles had been fished from the bottom of a swimming pool.
A concrete garbage can had been turned upright. Neighbors who live near the park in the shady, well-kept community had tended to the broken windows on their cars.
But three young trees near the front of the half-century old park on La Sierra Drive were still on the ground, snapped at their trunks.
Patrick P. Fenwick, Arden Park Recreation and Park District administrator, had put off disposing of the 15-foot-tall trees for a reason.
"I wanted the community to see what is going on," he said Friday, while standing next to one of the trees. "Maybe the community will be more watchful. It is easy to think that in a community like this we don't have vandalism. But we do."
Fenwick, who has been with the park district for 14 years, said it was the most damage to Arden Park since eight years ago, when vandals threw park benches into the pool.
Fenwick said the vandalism happened either late Tuesday night Aug. 8 or early Wednesday morning Aug. 9. Vandals drove around the park's locked gates into the parking lot near the district offices and pool.
"There was obviously a great deal of drinking going on," he said. "We had to close the parking lot for several hours to clean up broken liquor bottles."
But what was most obvious, he said, were the three broken trees near the front of the park. The trees had been growing well, part of a program to replace dying aging Modesto ash trees in the park.
The vandals also apparently scaled the fence around the pool, ripped four speakers used during swim meets from their poles and tossed them into the water.
Garbage cans also were thrown into the pool, requiring the district to close the pool for part of the day and add extra chlorine.
"The parking lot had to be closed for three hours to get the slivers of glass up," Fenwick said.
Damage totaled $3,000 to $4,000, he said.
"Everything can be replaced, but the malicious nature of it is upsetting to the community as a whole," he said.
Fenwick said that just down the street five cars had their windows broken, perhaps with a pellet gun.
The vandalism was not the first for Arden Park in recent times. A few months ago, on two occasions, somebody drove onto a softball field and left grass-damaging tracks.
