Park goes dark after light controls are vandalized

July 30, 2021  |  By Lisa Scagliotti and Tulley Hescock 

The online Park Incident Reporting form gives local residents a way to log complaints and concerns about municipal parks. Image courtesy Waterbury Recreation

 Town officials are looking for the public’s help regarding recent vandalism at Anderson Field that will mean no lighted tennis or volleyball areas for a while.  

Waterbury Recreation Director Nick Nadeau announced on Friday that lighted play at what’s a volleyball court in the summer and outdoor ice rink in the winter as well as the tennis courts will end until further notice. 

On Monday evening, July 26, the light-control box near the rink was broken into, damaged, and the lights were left on all night. “This is the second (costly) electrical component to be broken into and damaged at this park in a week,” Nadeau said in a post to Front Porch Forum. “Summer/fall lighted play will discontinue until further notice at Anderson Field.”

The incident was just a couple of days after the light box with controls for the nearby tennis court lights was broken into and lights left on as well. In that case, a timer inside was also broken, Nadeau said. 

Both sets of controls will need an electrician to repair them and Nadeau said he wants to wait to make the fix rather than risk additional damage. He said he has not gotten an estimate yet to know what the repair cost will be.

Nadeau said he contacted the state police but with troopers on vacation, the report was postponed given that it was not an emergency. He said he plans to follow up next week to make an official report. 

The incidents come as Nadeau this summer has introduced a new online reporting form for people to call attention to concerns about incidents in town parks. The form is available on the Recreation Department’s website and also at the top of its Facebook page. It also contains a scannable code as another way to access the form. 

Nadeau said it should be used to flag activities, incidents, etc. that staff should know about. “Something at a park that's a non-emergency should be reported,” Nadeau said. 

Being the one full-time employee in the department, it was important to come up with an efficient tool for this purpose, he explained. Visitors to the parks are able to submit the form that will land in Nadeau’s email and will be retained to collect data over time. Nadeau said having such information will be helpful to spot trends and figure out how to address issues.  

“This allows me to categorize what park the incident happens at or happens at the time, and then over a period of two, three, years we start to build some data that we can then review and pinpoint problem areas and times,” Nadeau said. 

Most issues that come up are dogs off leashes, or indecent behavior, Nadeau said. Most town parks are public spaces near private properties and are shared by neighbors who have a sense of what goes on in their neighborhoods. 

“It's just a kind of a proactive, preventative, and adaptive tool that we want to use going forward here,” Nadeau said. 

So far, Nadeau said he has not had many people use the form yet. He said he believes the incidents at Anderson Field are the exception to typical park activity. “Our parks are pretty safe,” he said. 

Anyone with information regarding the Anderson Field vandalism is asked to email Nadeau at recreation@waterburyvt.com or call the Vermont State Police at 229-9191.