Recent park vandalism may have led to child's injury in Shelby
Acts of vandalism continue to be reported in Shelby's park system with the latest incident being linked to a young innocent child being injured a few weeks afterward.
Around April 23, a park system restroom had been vandalized with a hand dryer pulled off the wall at Seltzer Park South, one of two recent vandalism incidents at that restroom. Less than three weeks later, after the dryer had been put back in place, Shelby parks Superintendent Jerry Marshall received a phone call from police on May 10.
"One of the first graders had stuck his finger in the dryer and cut the end of his finger off," Marshall told the Board of Park Commissioners at its monthly meeting later that evening.
"The dryer had been pulled off the wall," Marshall said of one of the vandalism incidents. "All we did was stick it back on the wall, we re-fastened" and didn't look at anything further because no further damage could be seen to the dryer, he added.
"Well, there's a cover...a safety-type device on the inside, you can't see it from the outside," Marshall told the park board.
Marshall does not know how the device eventually ended up missing prior to the unidentified first-grader getting injured.
"I feel terrible about it," Marshall told the park board of the injury. "...I don't know if they can save that finger."
"The fire chief found a piece of the finger laying on the floor there and wrapped it up and took it up to the hospital," Marshall also said.
According to a Shelby police report, the child was on a field trip to Playscape in Seltzer Park on May 10.
Police were told the child's left index finger was severed and a middle finger was badly mangled, the report said of the injury in the men's restroom.
In the police report, the officer stated that due to the placement of the dryer on the men's restroom wall "an adult would not have noticed the guard was missing unless they knelt over and looked up."
"I observed and photographed the dryer unit inside the girls restroom and that unit had a plastic guard that covered the vent and access to inside the unit," the Shelby police officer wrote.
The report stated that Marshall upon learning that there was no guard covering the dryer vent suspected this might have possibly been damaged or removed during a total of two prior incidents where the restrooms had been vandalized, the police report said.
After the boy was injured, the park's restroom was closed "due to the known safety hazard," police said.
Earlier in the month, another act of vandalism was reported at Shelby's Mcbride Park.
No suspects have been identified in the Seltzer or Mcbride incidents.
In addressing recent vandalism within the park system, Marshall noted how quickly it occurs.
"We put the new sink in on a Friday, and Monday morning one of the guys did a trash run and said 'You better come up here.' The sink was on the floor again, splintered up, just broke bad."
Park board member Ralph Rosinsky condemned the vandalism situation.
"I think it needs to be addressed to the citizens of Shelby that every time their taxes go up, one of the things that they bring up is they pay too much in taxes," he said.
Rosinsky spoke further about the recent significant vandalism.
"This is a prime example of abuse, and somebody knows the two (people) or three (people) who did this," Rosinsky said.
"This is costing this city," he added, noting the park system is in the process of buying a security camera system.
Rosinsky asked, "Would you like your restrooms closed down so they're not available for use?"
"Where do you draw the line?" he asked.
"And I think we have to kind of make a sobering statement because this vandalism is getting worse so far this year than it's ever been," Rosinsky added.
Park board member added Geoff Allen said: "The problem is if it goes unchecked or uncalled out, it just gets worse and worse and worse."
Other acts of park vandalism in Shelby since the spring of 2021 include:
* a decorative-style trash can being set ablaze Sept. 14, 2021 at Black Fork Commons, where a nearby decorative park bench also was damaged in that fire. Heat from the trash can fire damaged the bench by melting its paint. The trash can also had been designed for a park-setting that Black Fork Commons provides to visitors in downtown Shelby.
On Oct. 12, 2021 Marshall told the park board that the cost to replace the bench and trash container would be $3,000.
* soap dispensers being torn off the wall at Veterans Park leading to the closing of restrooms there during the week last year.
* Partitions in the men’s restroom kicked loose in an attempt to kick them down at Seltzer Park South where damage also was reported to the women’s restrooms.
* Boys at Rabold Park jumping on a merry-goround with intent, a caller reported, to damage the merry-go-round
* A concrete drinking fountain being tipped over at Rabold Park in vandalism that may have involved a vehicle.
"I think it's about 3 feet high with a good 4 inches of concrete all of the way around it," Marshall said at the time. "It probably weighs 200-300 pounds, breaking a water line. It caught the water line and the drain line, as well."
* unidentified people “tearing the wood off the side” of equipment that covers exposed steel that is structurally supporting the skateboarding ramp at Veterans Park.
* a young person breaking a parks' picnic table.
"He was jumping up and down on one of our picnic tables at the (Seltzer) North Pavilion and went crashing through," Marshall has detailed. "I'm surprised someone doesn't get hurt doing that sometimes, getting (caught) between 2x6 boards."
At the May 10, 2022 park board meeting, Rosinsky spoke of the importance of getting the word out about the vandalism that is continuing with the most recent reports.
"The city needs to know about this," he said. "The citizens need to know about this."