MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — This week, two restrooms by the Norwalk Creek pavilion at War Memorial Park were vandalized. They are temporarily closed for repair.
Martinsburg-Berkeley County Parks & Recreation Director Joe Burton talked about it the morning he found out.
Burton says it is not the most efficient use of employee time, but the park system may have to send someone out at dusk to lock up the bathrooms until the next day when parks officially open.
The city of Martinsburg issued a statement regarding the vandalism while sharing the MBC Parks and Recreation post:
“Rest assured, Martinsburg Police Department has been asked to look into this along with some other shenanigans that has recently occurred at Oatesdale. This purposeful vandalism is just ridiculous and costly. It takes away labor hours and funds that can be used to make our park system better and ruins the park experience for innocent folks. We are frequently asked to provide even more public bathrooms – and the need is probably legit – but we have more vandalism and other unsavory activities occurring in our public bathrooms than any other public facilities. Just 2 weeks ago, the public bathrooms at the Train Station were purposely vandalized causing water damage to the ceiling below.
Martinsburg has invested a substantial amount of real-time and recorded cameras in strategic locations around the City and within our public facilities in the last few months that are constantly monitored. Additional installations are in the works. So, if you want to do something that is illegal and dumb – make sure you smile – because you are probably on camera and you’re going to get caught.
See something, say something. If you know who did this, contact Martinsburg Police. If we want nice things, we have to take care of what we have. There are some cool plans to expand Martinsburg and Berkeley County park facilities and recreational services. We are actually pretty excited about some of the plans. But, purposeful destruction and vandalism are not helpful at all to move those plans forward.”