After an ongoing spate of small-scale vandalism, Presque Isle’s Mantle Lake Park received an estimated $5,000-$10,000 in property damage the night before Father’s Day.
On Sunday morning, people at the popular park found a destroyed kitchen at the park’s pavilion and graffiti that included racial slurs, Nazi swastikas, symbols of a marijuana pipe, multiple vulgarities and “Trump.” According to police, several youths went to the park between Saturday night and Sunday morning and smashed the kitchen door, broke the refrigerator and oven, among other things, and defaced multiple areas with spray paint.
By noon Sunday, volunteers had cleaned or covered 75 percent of the graffiti, and much of the park remained open for people who came on the hot, sunny Father’s Day.
The Presque Isle Police Department has found four juveniles believed to be responsible, and an investigation is ongoing, police Chief Matt Irwin said Monday. The suspects’ names will not be released because they are juveniles.
Irwin said the police will have more information to release soon on the case, including charges for the suspects and whether any of them are also responsible for graffiti and vandalism incidents going back to last fall at Mantle Lake Park or at Riverside Park.
Earlier this month at Mantle Lake Park, the pavilion and bathroom were sprayed with graffiti, and the Presque Isle Recreation Department was preparing to install a game camera on loan from a local police officer.
