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Vandals trash building at Mount Ashland By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune Mountain Manager Bruce Meek is looking forward to a day in court with the vandals who struck Ski Ashland early Thursday. "We're going to prosecute, for sure," Meek said after several men apparently broke into a storage room at the lodge, damaged a rescue sled and pitched empty beer kegs and other trash into the snow. Sheriff's deputies apprehended six 18- and 19-year-old Medford residents on the Mount Ashland Road after a member of the grooming crew noticed strangers in the parking lot and discovered the shed had been entered. The suspects were cited on charges of second-degree criminal trespass and third-degree criminal mischief, deputies said. The incident marks the latest episode in a long history of malicious destruction on the 7,500-foot mountain. Most vandalism occurs during the summer, when roads provide easy access to areas that are impossible to reach in winter except on skis. Most vandals aren't caught because they do their dirty work and then split. "These were stupid enough to stick around long enough to get caught," Meek said. In August, Meek said, vandals broke all of the insulated glass in three snow-grooming machines along with the machines' mirrors and lights. The bill for repairs came to about $10,000, and insurance didn't cover much. "We have a large deductible," he said. Several years ago, someone burned down a shack at the top of the mountain. "It was a shed for a small bulldozer we stored at the summit," Meek said. "Fortunately the bulldozer wasn't there at the time." None of the vandalism has been connected to environmental activists or politically motivated groups who might want to see the ski area disappear, Meek said. Some environmental activists did try to prevent loggers from cutting trees during construction of the ski area's new sewage treatment plant, and there was some damage at the plant, but no one has claimed responsibility for the destruction. Vandals don't restrain themselves to the buildings, Meek said. Security chains have been cut and fence posts uprooted. Motorcyclists and mountain bikers damage the soil on ski trails, and peoplein four-wheel drive vehicles have damaged ski runs. Meek said live-in watchmen at the ski area provide some defense against wanton property destruction, but a lone watchman has little deterrent effect on a band of determined vandals. He recalled an incident several years ago when a watchman who confronted vandals was badly beaten. The weather radar site on the Mount Ashland summit attracts vandals, too, said Dennis Gettman of the National Weather Service's Medford station. "They break windows. They've broken off lightning rods climbing the dome." A nearby television transmission station has seen little damage. "People really don't bother us much," said Mel Tynan, chief engineer for KTVL, Channel 10. "At some point we'll probably have to put a fence around it, but the weather's so bad up there, fences don't last." Tynan said the building's strong doors and double locks make it difficult to break into, and a remote "Sky Cam" camera at the site may put vandals on their guard. "They don't know what we're looking at," he said. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.