The operators of a park in Blenheim are closing down the property's fountain after it was targeted by pranksters several times.
Operated by the Blenheim Rotary Club, Talbot Trail Place is a community park located on John Street West. On Tuesday, park officials announced that they would be closing down the park's fountain weeks ahead of schedule after groups of adolescents dumped soap into it on three separate occasions over the last few weeks.
According to the park's manager, Ron Allingham, the trouble started a little over a month ago when several young kids poured dish soap into the fountain overnight. Although it may have seemed like a harmless prank, Allingham said the bubbles foamed several feet in the air, adding it took hours worth of work to close the fountain down, drain the water, and refill it to clean the bubbles out.
Allingham said a few weeks later in a "copycat" prank, the same thing happened again.
"The first group we were able to identify and we had a meeting with them... we explained the history of the park and what we hoped it meant to the community. These were older kids and they apologized. We accepted that and wished them well," he said.
Then, a third time, soap was dumped into the fountain again a few days ago. Allingham said at that point, they made the difficult decision to close the water feature for the season. He said the prank risks hundreds of dollars worth of damage to their filtration system.
"We have a filtration unit to keep the water clean and filter out any harmful materials before they get into the pumps. The filters cost about $300 each... The park is supported through grants, and different people coming to our concert and other gifts," he explained. "That's a waste of their money and our time when that kind of thing happens."
According to Allingham, the fountain was installed during constriction of the park about seven years ago and the park is maintained by volunteers who usually don't close the fountain until closer to Thanksgiving.
"We try to keep it nice and try to keep the flowers in good shape. We pick up the litter that gets thrown around, keep the grass cut and the trees trimmed," said Allingham. "We just wanted a nice place for the people of Blenheim."
Allingham said they have been in touch with the police about the issue. They're also looking into defensive mechanisms for next year such as motion detector lights. Despite what has happened to the fountain over the last month and a half, Allingham said he still believes there are a lot of good kids in Blenheim and he welcomes them to continue to use the park as long as it's treated with respect. Besides the kids that are responsible for the pranks, he's also hoping parents will get the message about teaching their kids to respect other peoples' property and that their actions come with consequences.
"As I said, I think most of the kids in Blenheim are great kids. It seems odd that there would be some very young people out that late at night and I just think there's a bit of a disconnect somewhere between parent supervision and what the kids feel they are free to do when nobody's looking," he said. "None of us were perfect as kids, I'm sure we all got into some mischief but some kids just take it too far."
