Salisbury PD investigating recent slew of vandalism

SALISBURY — Local police are looking for answers as to why the town has been hit with a recent wave of vandalism that dirtied some of its premiere outdoor locations.

Among the areas that were targeted were the town's rail trail, Memorial Park and Lions Park, according to Salisbury police Lt. Rich Dellaria.

"A lot of vandalism the last two weeks most likely occurred on the overnight hours," Dellaria said.

Dellaria said the department has made efforts to deter similar acts of property damage by increased bicycle and ATV patrols, especially along the rail trail.

"Those patrols did start in the first week of May," Dellaria said, adding the department was investigating the incidents. "The town has installed a significant amount of cameras around Lions Park and the rail trails, and it is time-consuming but we are reviewing all of those."

Selectman Chairperson and Parks and Recreation Commission member Ronalee Ray-Parrott noted that property damage has not been limited to graffiti.

"People climb up on the top of the dugouts and break holes into the top of the dugouts. We have kids carving their names into the pavilion that's down there at Lions Park. So it goes even broader than the tagging," Ray-Parrott said.

She said the town has taken steps to address that specific issue by ordering fenced-in dugouts.

"We hope that that will deter somebody from hanging out in the dugouts drinking, drugging, doing destruction, whatever they may do in those dugouts, that that will really come to a pause because the police can see right into the dugouts," Ray-Parrott said. "As it is now they might have to get out of their cars and walk the fields and that takes a long time. This way they can just shine their headlights into the dugouts and see if anybody is down in them."

Dellaria offered a message to residents about how they can help curb the increase in graffiti.

"We do ask that if the public sees suspicious activity on the overnight hours to call us and let us know," Dellaria said.

Anyone with information regarding the recent vandalism should speak with Detective Brian Verney. Dellaria added that the Department of Public Works has been working to remove the graffiti and any other damage as soon as possible.

Ray-Parrott said tagging and other acts of vandalism detracts from the town's considerable effort to keep public areas beautiful and clean.

"It hurts the town in such a large amount of ways beyond just wasting our money, it hurts who we are. It's kind of that broken window theory that when one window gets broken of an abandoned building, all of a sudden all the windows get broken in the abandoned building," Ray-Parrott said.

She shared her hope that police will soon be able to track down those responsible.

"There's a lot of similarities in what happened a little over a week ago and also what had happened in the past, so once we find that person, that's probably who's been doing it all along," Ray-Parrott said..

She stressed the town will be taking these matters very seriously.

"When we catch somebody, we are going to involve the police, we are going to involve the courts, in hopes that this would deter anyone else from doing this behavior. It really does speak more about our community and speak more about the character of the person doing it," Ray-Parrott said.

An idea that has been brought up by town officials is to bring in artists to do professional art pieces for the locations.

"That is an awesome alternative. I think that's great," Dellaria said.

Matt Petry covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: [email protected].

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