Wascana Park discussed at city council
After Crescent Park in downtown Moose Jaw was vandalized on Saturday night, residents quickly stepped up to show their pride in their city.
The vandalism included crude language and swastikas spraypainted across the park’s amphitheatre, murals defaced and benches broken.
Moose Jaw Mayor Fraser Tolmie said he was disappointed with the vandalism, but proud of the community’s strong response.
“To see the quick reaction of our police and our city and the community wanting to help and volunteer has just been amazing. (I’m) very, very proud of those who are willing to help, and very proud of our city’s efforts to rectify this situation,” he said.
A mural honouring war veterans was among those vandalized, and Tolmie said this is not a reflection of the community.
“Defacing a mural like that is very disrespectful, in my opinion, and this community has an extremely high turnout for Remembrance Day and has a high respect for the veterans and those serving in our community,” he said. “This is very out of step and not characteristic of a Moose Javian citizen.”
Just this spring, efforts were made to clean up Crescent Park and make it a friendlier space and community focal point, said Tolmie.
“So to have a group or whatever, whoever did this, to come along and do that, you know, it’s disappointing, but we’re not going to let them get the better of us. We’ll fix it up and we’ll take pride in our community,” he said.
Residents have been taking to social media to express their pride in the Moose Jaw community and express their willingness to help with the cleanup efforts, said Tolmie.
While appreciative of the willingness, he said the city asked residents to refrain from going to the park and cleaning up and let city workers with special products take care of it instead.
The city repaired the broken benches, removed about 20 graffiti tags and removed graffiti from the murals with no harm done to the artwork. The total cost of repairs was around $850, including labour, according to a press release.