Following a bad year of vandalism at Powell’s public parks, city officials are hoping members of the public will help be their eyes and ears this summer.

Vandals dealt a significant amount of damage in May and June 2023, going as far as starting a fire and tearing the toilet paper dispensers off the wall at the Washington Park bathrooms. And after crews got that mess cleaned up, “it was like destroyed the next day again,” City Parks Superintendent Tim Miller recently told the council.

“If the vandalism gets bad again like that, we’re just going to shut them [the bathrooms] down,” Miller warned at a budget meeting last month. “I mean, it’s bad to have to punish everyone, but the police don’t have the time to sit there and babysit the bathrooms.”

Powell Police Lt. Matt McCaslin said his officers will provide extra patrols around the parks, “but at the same time, it [vandalism] happens at all different times during the day.”

That’s one reason why police and parks officials say they need the public’s help.

“I can’t tell you how many times that we have people that are around, they see these things, but they don’t call to report it, because they don’t want to get involved,” McCaslin said.

In one instance last year, Miller said adults stood by and did nothing while a group of kids dragged a large picnic table around so they could climb onto a roof. It’s also common for staff to find names and messages carved into parks facilities and objects shoved into the toilets.

“You’d be surprised what we find,” Miller told the council. “It’s like Christmas every day going in there: You don’t know what you’re going to get.”

The city may install some surveillance cameras outside the bathrooms — Mayor John Wetzel said he’d prefer going that route before a total shutdown — but Miller again stressed the help citizens can provide by calling police if they see anything.

Crime tends to come in waves, and Miller said last week that this summer seems to have gotten off to a better start, with just the “normal” vandalism. 

“Not all of it’s big, some of it’s little, but all of it takes time to take care of,” he said.

In the upcoming fiscal year, the parks department plans to actually upgrade the Washington Park bathroom by adding doors and dividers to the stalls and replacing the toilets and sinks.

“We’re going to try to get away from the prison look there,” Miller quipped.

They explored the possibility of also adding heat — which would allow the bathrooms to open earlier in the spring and stay open later in the fall — but there was no practical way to insulate the building, he said.

Other park projects on tap in the coming year include replacing the collapse-prone cinder block dugouts at the Homesteader Park softball complex, adding sidewalks around Southside Park and replacing some crumbling sidewalks at Veterans Park.

Meanwhile, the biggest parks project on tap is the construction of a new splash pad at Homesteader Park.