Community Park Hit Again by Vandals

Less than a week after Patch reported on two acts of vandalism at Community Park in Cedar Grove, one of which included the carving of a swastika on a childrens' playground slide, another apparent incident has occurred, prompting officials to consider measures to put an end to it.

In this latest incident, human excrement was found inside the slide at the upper-level playground, and glass from shattered beer bottles was found scattered around the swingsets and near the soccer goal, prompting Cedar Grove resident Greg Dilley, who first came upon the latest vandalism with his young children, to write in to register his disgust.

"Human waste inside slide. Broken bottles smashed all over upper playset. Broken glass in and around goal. This has to stop. I had to leave the park with my kids," he wrote in an email.

The council said the bottles had been left in trash cans by visitors using the park's picnic area, but were later discovered and smashed, most likely by after-hours visitors.

"They put the bottles in the garbage, but after they leave, the bottles stay there, and teenagers or somebody else smash the bottles on the goal posts. Maybe we need to revisit whether we should institute some sort of carry in-carry out policy like at campgrounds. People are down there with little kids and there's broken glass all over the place," Councilman Peter Tanella said at the Sept. 19 Township Council staff meeting.

Township Manager Thomas Tucci agreed, and said he would work with the recreation department to draft a new policy, and said the township is looking into options that would discourage future acts of vandalism, or help ensnare would-be troublemakers.

"We're also going to look into the possibility of cameras to try to capture some of the events taking place and the characters involved," he said.

In a subsequent interview, Tucci said the proposal to install cameras at Community Park is "directly related" to the recent acts of vandalism, and that the Police Department would likely have a hand in deciding the locations.

However, he said, before cameras could be installed, additional lighting would be needed, not only to give police a better field of vision patroling the park at night, but so the cameras would be effective. Tucci says night vision cameras would be prohibitively expensive, so adding lighting is the next best option.

Some of the playground equipment will have to be replaced following the earlier acts of vandalism, which included some structural damage to the equipment done with an electric cutting instrument. Tucci said the township is awaiting estimates from the township's insurance company to determine the cost to replace the equipment.

The swastika has since been covered over with paint, however the equipment is still mostly off limits, with plastic orange netting placed around the damaged slides.