Document text
- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us March 6, 2006 Vandals keep Ashland officials hopping of late By Jennifer Squires Ashland Daily Tidings Eight days ago, it was the half-destroyed Natural Lithia Water drinking fountain. A week before that, it was graffiti in the restrooms on Calle Guanajuato and the south bridge in North Mountain Park. In the past month, spray paint on the large bowl in the Ashland Skate Park, graffiti on a storage shed door in Hunter Park and damage to a lawn in Lithia Park have kept parks department employees busy cleaning up what vandals have left behind. “The graffiti lately has been the big thing,” Ashland Parks superintendent Steve Gies said. “I think the biggest thing is we try to take care of it as soon as we can.” The Ashland Parks and Recreation Department easily spends upwards of $5,000 in man hours and supplies to repair park property after vandalism, according to Gies. “It’s hard to put an exact figure on it,” he said. The costs to clean up graffiti can vary by who estimates it and who does the removal, according to Ashland Police Department Sgt. Malcus Williams. For example, the graffiti two men marked on the south bridge in North Mountain Park on Feb. 25 was listed at $10 damage in APD reports. Graffiti on a storage shed in Hunter Park, toward the south end of town, was listed at $100 damage. However, some costs are firmer. Re-sodding the lawn where someone drove a vehicle in circles was priced at $140 in the police report. Repairing the drinking fountains in the Plaza, which are the responsibility of the public works department, will cost at least $600 a basin. Four were shattered by three transient men on Feb. 26. “It does get expensive after awhile,” Gies said. Although the recent rash of vandalism has been costly, there isn’t one area or one time of year that seems to be hit harder than another, according to Gies. Rather, the amount of graffiti seems to relate to how much a park is used. “If you get a facility that’s used more, there’s less,” Gies said. Staff writer Jennifer Squires can be reached at 482-3456 x 225 or [email protected]. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Generic Viagra Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Absinthe Supply Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Hammocks Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino King of Spirits ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams