Now You See It…..and Now You Don’t
Prince George, B.C.- It has been less than a week since new interpretive signs were installed in Cottonwood Island Park, and already one of them has been vandalized.
The signs were made possible by a donation from Husky Energy. They point out many of the features of the park, its flora and fauna as well as the tree carvings
Just a week ago, a sign was installed detailing “Plunge Fishers”. The photo above on the left was taken shortly after its installation. The photo on the right only shows what’s been left behind, namely the remnants of the base.
It is not the only sign in the park to have been vandalized this week. Signage pointing out the Centennial trail at the Cameron Street replica bridge was uprooted and tossed into the water below.
In less than two weeks, vandals have hit at least three targets in the park, with the first being the little “Holiday Tree” that was regularly decorated prior to each special occasion. Someone not only destroyed the decorations on that little tree, but ripped off the branches. Volunteers planted a new tree next to what’s left of the other.
Now, the park signage has been hit.
Vandalism in Cottonwood Island Park is not that common says Parks Supervisor Larry Ward “Typically, we see graffiti in some of the other parks and we have a standing work order to remove it as quickly as possible. We are working with the RCMP on the graffiti taggers, so in the off chance we catch them ( the taggers) we can fine them.”
Ward adds that while vandalism in Cottonwood Park is rare, it is likely the same person or persons are responsible for the most recent events, but he’s shaking his head “I just don’t understand what the thrill is, vandalizing, breaking things or spray painting, I just don’t get it.”
The interpretive signage will cost about $500 dollars to replace.
Comments
Fining them doesn’t do a lot of good. Make them buy materials for a new sign and then build it.
If they had to do all the cutting, drilling and welding themselves, up to standard, they probably wouldn’t do something so stupid again.
Might learn a bit of respect and some new skills too.
What the senseless disrespecting jerks need is a good old fashioned whoopin.
In today’s age though we’ll protect the vandals before we protect the property. The world has become soft and full of bleeding hearts, and our justice system is weak. There’s no deterrent not to damage the property anymore. Sad what we let people get away with in terms of crime and vandalism. “Do what you want, We won’t come down hard on you”
We make them pay and some soft liberal living off of my hard earned dollars will come out of the wood work and defend them, and justify why they shouldn’t be punished.
What should happen is we catch him, her whoever it is and break a bunch of their stuff. Although they probably have nothing and what they do have we probably paid for.
Someone need to learn a lesson though. Everyone I know is sick of this stuff, but we let the minority control what the majority believe.
well said
It starts by catching the individual(s).
How do you propose to do that? Trail cam for each sign?
Maybe trail cams are the answer. Technology is actually not that pricey in comparison to the cost of some of this damage.
The punks and vandals need to know their not going to get away with it. It’s time we used some of our tax dollars towards putting an end to this crap and send a message that we’ve had enough. I know I have.
I bet you’d go to any length if someone was slashing your tires or breaking your windows every night. Why is this different. I pay huge taxes in this city and what for? Just so I can continue subsidizing these repairs all the time?
If your a property owner you will fully understand.
Pull out all stops and do what’s necessary to catch these people. Make a hard example of them. I’m sure they’ll be out there doing it again. People like that can’t help themselves. They have some sort of entitled attitude that their above everything and are free to cause harm.
So yeah, trail cams is probably a good start.
The kids with spray paint and markers are getting out of hand recently. We have a couple in our sights but until we can get concrete proof with video or actual sighting (seen walking away from graffiti with marker in hand but not marker to wall) constant surveillance will have to do
As i frequent this area of the park almost daily i have seen this destruction first hand.
Although i agree with the writer for the most part, i do not agree that this happens very seldom. The toilets in this area are a constant target, the doors have been ripped off so many times i can’t count them, to the point where i believe a vehicle and chain must have been used to rip the door off, the tree and the signs are most recent but someone has been doing damage down there for years. Maybe some video cameras would identify the culprit and get him some mental help before he does something much worse.
Cowardly morons do all kinds of things including vandalizing public property! Trail cams are a good idea! When caught take them to the woodshed and give them a good strapping, one that they will remember for a very long time!
So what’s new? Just some upstanding PG citizens showing their preference to live in a pig sty. They must figure if it smells like one then it might as well look like one too.
If we catch them, we are not allowed to beat them!
So perhaps if we catch them, we chain them by their ankle to the repaired or replaced sign! Then we strap a walking billboard on them, stating something along the lines of:
“I’m chained to this new sign because I’m the freaking IDIOT that destroyed the original sign!”
Oops, can’t do that as it might hurt the lowlife’s feelings!
I wonder how Justin’s hero, Fidel Castro might have dealt with them?
Is trail cams the answer? Trail cams is video surveillance, do we really want/need this everywhere – even on our family walks in Cottonwood Park? Sounds like a futuristic movie where everyone is under constant surveillance. I would love to catch these inconsiderate, useless vandals as bad as anyone, but do we have to resort to this- watching and filming everyone, almost everywhere?
Or maybe I need to accept that this is already happening and realize it’s just another tool to help police the bad people. The biggest problem is that even if the bad people get caught, there is very little consequence to deter them and their like to stop.
It may be just one deranged thug! After the misfit has been caught by a trail cam a dummy cam can be installed in its stead and the real one moved to another location where it is needed. Dummy cams look 100% like the real thing.
We can’t just stand by idly and do nothing.
I have to admit . As one looks back and forth between the two photos in the artical . The one without the billboard in the way of the veiw is my preffered . It’s a beautiful spot .
Ataloss, perhaps you are not aware, but after reading what is on the interpretive sign, one is able to move to the other side of it in order to enjoy a completely unobstructed view of what was explained on the interpretive sign!
So nice to know that you’ll now be a bit more careful and a bit more selective when referring to others on this site as morons, haha!
Cheers!
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