By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HOULTON — The number of vandalism incidents at Riverfront Park this past summer has Houlton Police Chief Joe McKenna concerned about future projects in the park.
During the summer, police responded to multiple incidents of vandalism and criminal mischief in the park. The cases became so common that McKenna said police adopted a “zero tolerance” policy for any criminal mischief going on in the park. Video surveillance cameras have helped police identify individuals, but have done little to deter activity from taking place, the chief said.
McKenna said he suggested that all of the wood benches be removed from the park and be replaced with concrete slabs as a way to deter future vandalism.
The vandalism became so rampant this past summer that McKenna asked Pioneer Broadband to turn off the free wireless Internet in the park, to see if that had any impact on the number of youths congregating in the area.
“We had about six or seven incidents in a short amount of time of criminal mischief,” Chief McKenna said. “When we turned the WiFi off, the kids left.”
Once school returned to session, the number of youths spending time in the park also dropped, which allowed for the wireless internet to be turned back on for the public.
The concept of placing permanent bathrooms in the park has chief McKenna “concerned.”
“It will be a headache for us,” he said. “People would go in there, and write on the walls. They’ll do the same thing that they are doing to the gazebo. It’s just another area to do it (vandalism). At least when they are out and about we can see them with the cameras.”
Though privately raised funds would pay for the cost of building the restrooms, the Riverfront Park Committee is seeking council approval because the town would have to foot the bill for maintenance. McKenna added he understood why the committee members would like to have restrooms in the park. There are currently no public restrooms in downtown Houlton.
The most serious incident occurred on Aug. 13 when an 18-year-old female was caught by police trying to burn off disparaging remarks about her that had been carved into the wooden trusses of the gazebo. That individual was initially charged with arson, but was later changed to criminal mischief.
McKenna said Riverfront Park was the only area of Houlton that has seen focused activity of criminal mischief since he took over as police chief in February.
“The reality of it is, somebody has to start holding these kids accountable,” McKenna said. “It’s one thing to do mischievous things, but when it becomes something that is costing taxpayers money to fix, it is a bigger issue.”
