Vandalism at three city parks

A report by city manager Carl Sonnenburg that there had been recent vandalism at three Waseca parks led to some heated discussion at the Tuesday May 2 city council meeting.

Most of the damage occurred in restrooms. Clear Lake Park received the worst vandalism; Sonnenburg claimed that the soap dispensers for both bathrooms in the park’s beach house were ripped off the walls, with the soap bags ripped and strewn all over the floors.

“Toilet paper was also all over the floor,” he added. “It looks like they tried setting it on fire.”

Trowbridge Park received similar damage to the men’s restroom; a soap dispenser and toilet seat were broken by vandals.

Perhaps the most vulgar act had been done the previous week at Northeast Park, where someone defecated on the floor of the men’s restroom.

To “bring a shining light” to the conversation, Sonnenburg shared that, at a cost of about $7,900,  the city is in the process of installing cameras at Lakeview Park. The cameras come from Streamline, a security company out of Waseca, which is providing the cameras and performing the installation.

Sonnenburg pointed out that cameras for University, Northeast, and Trowbridge parks are already included in the city’s capital improvement plan for 2024-26. However, he suggested that the recent acts of vandalism may warrant expediting those installations. He informed council members that adding cameras at the three additional parks would bring the total cost to about $25,000. He talked to the city’s financial advisor for recommendations, and it was agreed that since the city saved so much on its road construction projects, a financial amendment would not be needed to move forward with this.

“If the council wouldn’t want to do this, my alternate recommendation would be to close the bathrooms and rent port-a-potties,” Sonnenburg offered. “But I don’t feel like we should close the bathrooms for [nearly all] our citizens because of a few brats.”

Council members Jeremy Conrath and John Mansfield were pretty passionate about this topic.

“If it’s an issue with juveniles, unfortunately I’m not sure there’s much we can do,” Conrath said. “Would they be held accountable?

“It’s a tough issue, and we might not get help on the state level,” he continued. “The state needs to stop giving them ‘get out of jail for free’ cards. Defecating in a bathroom? That’s disgusting. There are videos out there of kids stealing cars and they think they’re funny. And we don’t get to hold them accountable because the lawmakers at the state level are a joke.”

Mansfield stated similar sentiments. In a figure of speech, he said, “You can’t throw tomatoes at someone for a day for destroying public property anymore.

“I’m just saying there needs to be accountability. The judicial system is not inclined to do that. If we can identify them…what will happen? Nothing?”

He continued, “This is public property, something for the public good being destroyed. At least with the cameras, we can identify who did it. We can warn people to watch a certain person if they’re caught on camera. It’s like a neighborhood watch, but that’s where we are in society right now.”

Mayor Randy Zimmerman asked about the police department’s opinion on getting these cameras, to which everyone responded that they would take any help they get in capturing vandals.

“It’s another tool for them,” council member Stacey Schroeder pointed out.

A subtopic of the vandalisms was the need to look at the city code concerning trespassing. “It won’t be as simple as last time,” Sonnenburg said.

Council member Daren Arndt agreed. “We need to get to our trespassing code immediately,” he said.

The council agreed to look into possibly getting the security cameras for University, Trowbridge, and Northeast Parks as soon as possible. Sonnenburg admitted that there was no definite time or a final price until the city committed to ordering the cameras.

“The prices for cameras haven’t skyrocketed so far,” he assured the council. “And I’d like to get the ball rolling sooner rather than later.”