Park restrooms must be maintained

One thing that draws interest is to create a sense of outrage. And I can tell you that I am outraged this week over the abuse of the new Westside Park pavilion and its lack of maintenance. Last week I was notified of the women's rest room being trashed. I don't know on what day the restroom was trashed but I know it remained that way even after city officials were notified.

I decided Saturday to clean up the pavilion restrooms and was sickened at what I saw. The north stall of the women's restroom was littered with toilet paper, pop bottles, tampons, and feces. I can only assume that the damage was done by a female since I don't know of many males who use tampons. Although in this day and age you never know.

Since the restrooms were closed during the winter, it was evident that people relieved themselves on the floor of the pavilion over the winter. Caked urine lined the walls and the floor in the corner of the foyer leading to the restrooms. I spent the next two hours sweeping and scrubbing the bathrooms down with bleach water. In addition, there was no toilet paper or paper towels in their respective holders in the restrooms and one of the toilet drains had to be snaked.

My second sense of outrage is why the maintenance of the restrooms is being neglected by the city? I was told that a person was assigned to inspect the restrooms and to clean them on a regular basis. There was obviously no maintenace performed at the Westside Park pavilion. I understand that the restrooms at the New Millennia Park are also being trashed.

Some of those who helped build the pavilion are outraged also. As one of the workers told me, "I busted my butt for 2 years to help build this pavilion. I did my part and saved the city a lot of money by volunteering my services. The least I can expect is for the city to do their part and keep the pavilion maintained."

One of the reasons the old bandstand was torn down is because it was not maintained properly. We should learn from this mistake and not let it happen with the new pavilion.

I am sure that those who contributed money to the construction of the Westside Park pavilion will also be outraged to learn that the pavilion is being trashed and not maintained properly. People are not going to contribute if they feel that the object of their donation is not going to be maintained properly.

If the city has not specifically delegated the responsibility of maintaining the restrooms at both parks, it should do so now and make sure that the maintenance is carried out. If the responsibility has been delegated and the work has not been carried out, those responsible should be reprimanded.

Vandalism is not unique to Minonk. Other communities are reporting similar problems. I know the police cannot be everywhere to prevent such acts. What the police can do is to make themselves more visible and to talk to those who appear to be hanging around. I have noticed some unsavory looking characters hanging around downtown Minonk recently. I also noticed people drinking beer on the downtown sidewalks. The police need to start walking the beat downtown and make their presence be known.

People who have knowledge of vandalism should report it to the authorities. Parents should be aware of what their children are doing and punish them if they are found to be guilty of wrong doing. We cannot let a few idiots destroy the good in this community for everyone else.