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Bear Creek Greenway attacked by vandals By BUFFY POLLOCK CENTRAL POINT � Nine-year-old Skylor Hathaway learned about nature, discipline and helping others when she worked to make the city�s entrance to the Bear Creek Greenway a nice place for residents and visitors to enjoy. After vandals attacked the Greenway last month, she learned that not everyone was taught to care about those things. "I was just looking around and I saw something was wrong with the park. I was surprised. It made me really sad," Skylor said. Skylor�s fourth-grade class, along with local civic club members, high school seniors and other members of the community, gave up several Saturdays over the past year to prepare the site off Peninger Road for planting trees and shrubs and installing a drip irrigation system to ensure vegetation survival. When volunteers showed up two weeks ago to finish work to the main irrigation line and check newly planted saplings, they found irrigation pipes sliced into several pieces, saplings cut down and some larger trees debarked. Volunteer Steven Dunham said he reported the incident the morning of March 31 but suspected the damage had been done at night. While not much dollar damage was done, the incident took its toll by "the amount of irritation it caused," Dunham said. "We went out there all ready to lay the rest of the irrigation line and found what we�d laid earlier had been cut in several places. We had to spend the time to go get cufflinks and piece it all together. It was just a rotten thing," Dunham said. Larry Walters, a deputy with the Jackson County Sheriff�s Department, said the vandalism was still under investigation and no suspects had yet been identified. "They wanted to report it so we and Central Point (police) were aware in case we get another vandalism," Walters said. The project was funded by a donation from Pacific Power. Labor and supplies were also donated. Karen Smith, special projects manager for the county parks department, said it was "discouraging but rare" for someone to destroy work donated by community members. "The community stepped up to make a contribution in a very large-scale way. People generally like projects like this, but once in awhile you have a cruddy person," she said. "It�s almost like there�s a rule that there have to be people like that to keep the rest of us on our toes." Smith said increased patrols had been requested to try to prevent further vandalism and damaged trees and shrubs would not be replaced right away for fear of repeat occurrence. Dunham said the damage could have been much worse. "Fortunately, there was no water pressure in the lines yet. We�d have filled up Bear Creek," he said. But the fourth-grader who spent so much time transforming the sandy, weed-covered site into a park felt that any amount of damage was just unfair. "I think they�re just being cruel to the environment," Skylor said. "We put that in for a reason, to help the world. I don�t want them to hurt them or anything, but it was just really mean of whoever did it. I hope someone can talk to them." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.