The Corduroy Brook vandalized

Thing the little boy walking on the trail with his motheron Tuesday afternoon noticed was the broken sign hanging fromchains. He asked corduroy Brook Enhancement Association executive directorBarry Manuel if the wind broke it, but Mr. Manuel told the littleboy quietly that someone "broke that sign on purpose." The little boy said, "That is not very nice." Vandals were not nice at all to the walkways, hand-rails, garbagecontainers and signage on Friday night. Dozens of metres of handrails were rocked from their place andthrown into the ponds. Benches were also destroyed, along withdamage to signage. Mr. Manuel said there was a large group of teens, estimated torange in age from 12-16 years old, reportedly assembled at thewalking trail a short distance from the Conservation Place entrancethat night. The vandalism occurred sometime between 9 p.m. Friday night and 6a.m. Saturday morning. Mr. Manuel said it seems that group is the one responsible for thedamage. "You have 20-25 young people congregating here late on aFriday night and everything is in good order and then someone comesin here Saturday morning and everything is beat up, you can add twoand two," he said. "It seems to me the young people whotake part in these types of activities have no fear." He said unfortunately the vandals seem to have no worries of beingheld accountable for the damage they cause, since it appears thereare no consequences if they are caught and found guilty of theoffences. He said people should take some action about the needlessdestruction. "When you have no fear you have no respect, that is thebiggest problem, I think," said Mr. Manuel. "It is timefor someone to take a stand - all of us." He was unable to put a dollar figure on the damage, since most ofit was able to be repaired using existing materials, which werecarried out by volunteers from the association's board ofdirectors. Mr. Manuel pointed out vandalism is not specific to the trail andseems to be an increasing problem in Grand Falls-Windsor. Hebelieves it is a social problem that needs to be addressed. His organization has tried to be part of a solution over the yearsby engaging young people in activities and programs such as itssummer camps for kids, Alternative Measures and Skills Linkprograms in an effort to bring young people onside and teach theman appreciation for the outdoors. He suggested community groups and law enforcement should take therecent incident as a sign they have to take action to curb thevandals. "A long term solution may never be reached totally, but if youcome up with something it may help," said Mr. Manuel. "Town police, RCMP, the town and groups like ours need to sitdown and start discussing this problem because this is big. It isnot just here, it is everywhere. It's a tough one to tackle butunless we tackle it, it is not going to go away." Sgt. Harold Nippard of the Grand Falls-Windsor RCMP said the matteris under investigation. He called the vandalism "a senselessact." He said citizens can help police put a stop to vandalism by beingaware of their surroundings and calling on the RCMP when they seeanything suspicious. "Anyone using the trail or seeing anything unusual should callin and report it to us so we can have an opportunity to check itout," he said. "Do not confront them yourselves." Anyone with information pertaining to the investigation can callthe Grand Falls-Windsor RCMP at 489-2121 or Crime Stoppers at1-800-222-8477.

2008-06-11 13:37:38