Park destruction costing Post Falls

Several Post Falls parks have been transformed this spring into a mud bogger’s paradise where trucks and motorcycles are spinning brodies on the lawn, ripping up irrigation pipes and crashing into signs and bike racks.

The vandalism is costing the city thousands of dollars in staff time and repairs and delaying other projects, such as setting up new playground equipment in Beck Park and prepping ball fields for the upcoming season.

“The sad part is 99 percent of the people appreciate the parks and use them properly,” Parks Director Dave Fair said. “It’s a small percentage that just doesn’t.”

The majority of the damage has been at Black Bay Park, between Third Avenue and the Spokane River. Kiwanis Park, also on the Spokane River, has had similar problems. Just in March, there have been four reports of vandalism at city parks.

Post Falls plans to erect a fence that will help keep drivers off the landscaped hillside that adjoins the Black Bay parking lot. The barrier means that residents can no longer use the area for sledding in the winter.

Besides tearing up the sod, people have uprooted shrubs, dumped trash, spray-painted graffiti and destroyed a portable toilet.

Fair suspects it’s just a few people causing trouble, which is a perennial problem for Post Falls.

“It coincides with spring and spring break,” Fair said. “That’s part of the cycle.”

The Post Falls Police Department is increasing patrols in the parks but so far has no suspects.

Neither Black Bay nor Kiwanis parks have surveillance cameras. Police have a video of a Jan. 9 incident at Falls Park that shows a light-colored car jumping the sidewalk and ramming into a handicap parking sign before smashing into a portable outhouse. The license plate isn’t visible and police have not yet identified a suspect.

Chief Cliff Hayes would like to put cameras in all parks, but the city doesn’t have the money. Instead, the police will rely on extra patrols for the city’s 23 parks and the parks department will erect more barricades to keep vehicles off the grass and hillsides.

Another potential is closing most parks a half-hour after dusk. The city Parks and Recreation Committee is in the process of rewriting city laws to include the curfew. Members hope to have a draft to the City Council by June.

Post Falls parks are open 24 hours a day, except for a few that close at sunset.

Kiwanis, Black Bay and Falls parks close at dusk because of previous vandalism problems, Fair said.

“This is obviously a costly thing for the city,” Hayes said.

He said that often the offenders – he thinks they are teens – don’t associate a price tag with the damage. That’s why Hayes will recommend that anyone who’s found guilty of these misdemeanors is ordered by a judge to pay restitution.