Police/Fire

Garden vandalized, again

A bench vandalized by the violent removal of the armrest and part of a leg waits for repair, again, in the gazebo at Grandmother's Garden. (Photo ©2014 Carl E. Hartdegen)

A bench vandalized by the violent removal of the armrest and part of a leg waits for repair, again, in the gazebo at Grandmother’s Garden. (Photo ©2014 Carl E. Hartdegen)

WESTFIELD – The Friends of Grandmothers Garden who support the beautifully flowered park on Smith Avenue must get discouraged when work they do – which shouldn’t have needed to be done in the first place – gets undone within weeks.
A friend of the garden came to the station Friday to report that three benches in the gazebo at the park had been damaged.
The complainant said that the ends of the benches, which he estimated to be worth about $500 each, had been vandalized by kicking off the end of the bench which forms the armrest and part of the leg of the bench.
He also said that he had recently repaired similar damage.
The man told the responding officer, Steven Carrington, that a report had been filed Aug. 8 to document vandalism to the same benches. He said that he had recently repaired that damage but had been told by another friend of the garden on Thursday that the benches were vandalized again.
The complaint said that the other man told him that the benches were intact when he visited the park about 11 a.m. but he found that they had again been damaged when he returned to the garden about 6 p.m.
The complainant estimated the cost of the damage to be about $150 per bench.

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