THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 13, 1996 TAG: 9607130174
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: 83 lines
Recently restored Fountain Park in the Port Norfolk historic district was trashed sometime before dawn Friday.
Five reinforced concrete benches and part of a concrete fountain were smashed. Blooming plants from two flower beds were pulled from the ground by their roots and scattered around the park.
Millie Lomax, chairman of the committee that raised $10,000 and did the work to restore the park on Broad Street, was close to tears as she surveyed the damage and talked through clenched teeth about the vandalism.
``Somebody really had to work to break up those benches,'' Lomax said. ``They had to plan to do this because they had to have something heavy to do this.''
In a drizzle Friday,Lomax and two other residents, Tom Hutchins and Ron Quesenberry, grimly picked up the plants and replanted them.
``We will put it all back,'' Hutchins said. ``It may be a struggle but we're not going to give in on this.''
Hutchins, whose family has lived in Port Norfolk for 70 years, said the neighborhood residents decided to reconstruct the park with a children's playground after gangs of young men gathering on the site began to create problems.
``They took this place over and kept other people out,'' he said. ``We decided to take it back for all the people.''
Vandalism at the park has been a problem ever since the refurbishing began. On the night before a formal re-dedication June 22, police arrested three Suffolk youths after residents saw them turning over trash barrels and portable toilets rented for dedication day.
``They charged them with destruction of public property, and I think they have some other charges against them,'' Madlyn Morris Grimes, the Port Norfolk Civic League president, said Friday.
The cases have not come to court yet, she said.
Grimes said the park also had been subjected to spray-painted graffiti during the weeks the committee was working on it.
Hutchins said he does not believe the damage this week was done by the same group. ``Nobody seems to have heard or seen anything,'' he said. ``Yet there must have been some noise because you couldn't break up these concrete benches without making some noise.''
Police had made no arrests by Friday afternoon.
``I hope if somebody witnessed this, they will call in,'' Hutchins said.
Lomax said the decision by the city to move two basketball goals from Fountain Park to another park in nearby Mount Hermon may be part of the problem. Some residents have been critical of the committee, accusing members of being ``yuppies.''
``Well, this shows we aren't yuppies,'' Hutchins said of the three picking plants. ``Yuppies would hire somebody to do this and to do the work to create the park. We did it ourselves.''
Fountain Park has been on the maps of Port Norfolk for more than 100 years. Residents of the neighborhood raised $10,000 for the fountain, benches and plants as well as playground equipment.
Most of the volunteer workers have children or grandchildren in the neighborhood.
``I want my son to see that we are not going to tolerate behavior like this,'' Hutchins said.
Lomax said her son was angry about the park incident.
``He was a part of this project and he worked hard,'' Lomax said Friday. ``I told him today that we'll just keep saying no to people who would destroy it.''
Quesenberry, a Coast Guardsman, said he and his family have lived here for three years and that they don't ``plan on going anywhere else.''
``This will be our home when I get out,'' he said. ``We want to protect it.''
Deputy City Manager W.H. ``Luke'' McCoy said Friday he had received many calls about the trashing of the park. McCoy represented the city at the grand opening and spoke on keeping vandals off the site in the future.
``The police can't be everywhere at once,'' he said. ``But I am going to ask Chief (Dennis) Mook to try to do more in this instance. I am hoping we can pick up those who did it rather quick.''
He said he would explore the possibility of installing lights at the park. ILLUSTRATION: IDA KAY JORDAN
Millie Lomax, left, chairwoman of the committee that raised $10,000
and did the work to restore Fountain Park, picks up plants to be
replanted, while Tom Hutchins, a neighbor, surveys the damage.
Concrete benches and a fountain, as well as plants, were the
vandals' targets.
KEYWORDS: VANDALISM by CNB