By Jen Lynds
Staff Writer
HOULTON — For the past six years, Riverfront Park has become one of the most popular gathering places in the community.
Nestled just off Market Square and connected to the downtown by Gateway Crossing, a pedestrian footbridge, the park has become a gathering spot for festivals, fund-raising walks and even fireworks displays.
It also has become a growing attraction for vandals, who have carved obscenities into the wooden benches, broken streetlights, strewn trash around and sprayed graffiti on the storyboards that note the history of the town.
Houlton officials said Thursday that they do not have a financial tally of the damage done to the park since it was officially dedicated in 2009, but the vandalism is something they are aware of and are working hard to stop.
“I know that there was a serious incident this summer that involved a youth,” said Marie Carmichael, the town’s recreation director, referring to an instance where one teen was charged with criminal mischief after she attempted to burn off disparaging remarks about her from the roof of the gazebo that houses the picnic tables. “And I know that the police stepped up their presence there. We haven’t got financial figures, but we know that in any park where people congregate, there is going to be vandalism.”
Carmichael said the recreation department builds the cost of repairs into its budget and that so far that has involved minor work such as sanding off words and images carved into picnic tables and painting over graffiti.
“The costs aren’t astronomical,” she said.
Members of The Riverfront Committee worked for five years to clean up the park area and raise the $1 million needed to build the 187-foot footbridge. They also secured grants and donations to create a lighted park furnished with picnic tables and other amenities, a groomed fitness trail and storyboards lining the bridge and walking path.
Committee members also raised approximately $45,000 in private funding to build restrooms in the park, and planned to apply for grants to secure additional monies. Earlier this month, however, the Town Council voted 3-2 to deny the committee permission to build the restrooms because the town would have to foot the bill for ongoing maintenance. Fears about vandalism also factored into the decision, as vandals had targeted portable toilets in the park in the past.
Vandals began targeting the park as early as 2007, when two juveniles and an adult were charged with aggravated criminal mischief, a felony, after destroying several storyboards that were affixed near the railings of the bridge and also smashing a light pole near the site. Close to $3,000 in damage was done to the site, according to police.
Police stepped up patrols in 2008 after damage was done to several parks in the community, including Riverfront Park, where picnic tables where targeted.
In 2013, Bob Anderson, chairman of the Riverfront Committee, told councilors that the committee was looking to spend $1,200 to purchase new picnic tables to replace ones targeted by vandals.
Houlton Police Chief Joe McKenna said last week that vandalism was rampant in the park this past summer, and it was mostly acts committed by youths. They have broken street lights by the Highland Avenue bridge, littered the area, and carved names and obscenities into the wooden benches.
The chief also told councilors last week that police were stepping up patrols in the area to prevent any recurrence.
