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Vandals burn lake restrooms Applegate recreation areas now toiletless By PAUL FATTIG APPLEGATE LAKE -- Vandals have burned three outhouses and a $20,000 "comfort station" at Applegate Lake, leaving the recreation season at some popular sites in ashes. The Forest Service is offering a $300 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the culprits. "I cannot provide sanitary services at these high-use areas now," said John McKelligott, the Applegate Ranger District employee in charge of recreation sites at the lake. "I just don't have money in the budget to replace them," he said of the portable toilets which had been placed at fishing and boat launch sites. "And there is no money to rebuild the comfort station." The destroyed restroom was at Seattle Bar, a picnic and fishing area at the southernmost portion of the lake which normally draws crowds by Memorial Day weekend each year. The restroom fire has forced the closure of the day-use site. "Seattle Bar will remain closed," he said of the near future, and it may remain closed all summer. "It was an extremely popular area." The outhouses -- at French Gulch, Carberry Creek and the Copper boat landing -- were provided through a contractor who was paid a little more than $1,500 for the losses. Restroom facilities now available to the public include those at the Carberry Campground and the Watkins Campground. "We are pretty certain it is high-school age folks," McKelligott said, noting that a witness to the Seattle Bar arson has stepped forward with some information. The first incident occurred when a portable outhouse at French Gulch was torched in February or March, he said. The portable toilets at the mouth of Carberry Creek and at the Copper boat landing burned shortly after that, he said. "While we were mulling this over, they burned the $20,000 comfort station at the Seattle Bar picnic ground -- in broad daylight," he said. "But at that point the vandals stepped over the line from burning up someone's business property to committing federal arson," a felony. While vandalism has occurred around the lake in the past, McKelligott said he's seen nothing of this magnitude in the dozen years he's worked in the district. "It's heartbreaking to me," he added. While a Forest Service law enforcement officer as well as an occasional sheriff's deputy and Oregon State Police trooper patrol the area, it is too vast for 24-hour coverage, officials said. McKelligott said the agency needs the public's help. "These are your facilities," he said. "We need your eyes and ears without getting confrontational or putting yourself at risk. "But it's a sad thing," he added. "We're looking at one of the nicest years at the lake with all this snow in the mountains. Now some of the facilities will probably remain closed all summer." For further information on the reward, call the agency at 899-1812 or 471-6500. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA