The Steelhead Park in Houston has become a victim to another vandal attack, this time with damage done to the park lawn.
“I came to the park today and I saw that somebody came through, I am not sure exactly when, whether last night or over the weekend, but they came and did a big donut and obviously purposely made and left a big mess right in the middle of the park with huge tire marks and skid marks on the lawn,” said Rachelle Barden on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
Barden who, along with her husband Tom, is in charge of maintaining and landscaping the park, reached out to Houston Today with the hopes that “if more people know about this, they will be vigilant and keep an eye out.”
This is second such incident in just a month. Towards the end of August, Barden discovered uprooted plants, some missing, some strewn across the ground after pulling them out. She said at the time that she discovered the missing perennials and the recklessly abandoned annuals last week and was extremely disappointed by the miscreants who were stealing a bunch of plants and spoiling a public park. This time, the vandalism is even more blatant, with huge tire marks left in the shape of donuts in the middle of the park.
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“I am hoping that if more people know, they will keep their eyes open for anybody late at night on an ATV or something. The policeman said he thought it might be an ATV,” said Barden who has now involved the RCMP after suspecting this to be the work of the same vandals as before.
Barden also said that the RCMP’s involvement would hopefully mean a stop to these activities as the police have told her they would be investigating the matter and also would look at nearby CCTV surveillance footage in the hopes of identifying the suspects.
Barden’s company Blu-Sky Landscaping owns the contract for landscaping the park, through the District of Houston. Apart from the monetary impact of vandalism, the aesthetic of the park also suffers according to Barden as the couple carefully planted and designed park gets messed up.
With this latest act of vandalism, Barden is hoping that people would stay vigilant and inform her, or the District or even the RCMP of any suspicious individuals and activities.
Priyanka Ketkar
Multimedia journalist
@PriyankaKetkar
priyanka.ketkar@ldnews.net
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