Unless the city can stifle a vandalism spree that has ransacked parts of its parks, it’s possible the damage could delay the opening of the Rockwell Park pool and the completion of a new skatepark at the historic park.
Park Director Ed Swicklas said Friday that dealing with the ongoing vandalism is “leading toward park delays” that could make it difficult for crews to get the necessary work done on time.
Meanwhile, city Councilor Ken Cockayne said Friday that he’s putting up a $250 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the vandals who spray painted the inside walls of the swimming pool at Rockwell Park recently.
Cockayne said he took a look at the damage and “it really upset me.”
“We’re spending millions and millions of dollars to clean up our parks and we have these punks trying to defeat exactly what we’re trying to do,” Cockayne said.
Cockayne said that the city Republican Party is likely chipping in another $250 toward a reward.
Mayor Art Ward said he doesn’t know any details about how much reward money has been offered, but cautioned that it might not be a good idea.
He said it might be impossible for the city to implement a reward that pays out the money to an informer while maintaining the whistleblower’s confidentiality.
In addition, Ward said, he’s not sure that a councilor can legally offer a reward, however admirable the intent.
He said he’s asked the city attorney’s office to look into it.
Ward said that Cockayne initially asked the mayor to have the city offer up to $1,000 in reward money, but questions about protecting the identity of a tipster derailed the idea.
Cockayne said he doesn’t need the mayor’s approval to offer his own money.
“I was so upset I figured I’d put my money where my mouth is,” Cockayne said, adding that he’d like to see the rest of the council do the same.
City officials complained this week that vandals have caused thousands of dollars worth of damage at Rockwell Park – and lesser damage at other parks – and that the spree hasn’t shown signs of slacking.
Police officers are trying to keep a closer eye on the parks, officials said, in the hope of catching the culprits in the act.
Cockayne said that if anybody’s nabbed “I want to see them prosecuted to the full extent of the law” and would like to see punishment include a requirement that the vandals clean up graffiti as part of their sentence.
The freshman GOP councilor also said he believes that parents deserve part of the blame, too.
“They should start holding the parents accountable for the actions of their children. If the parents were watching their kids, this wouldn’t be happening,” Cockayne said.
This isn’t the first time that Cockayne has dipped into his $10,000 part-time salary to offer cash to the community.
He contributed $100 to last month’s library contest to name the failed mall property.
“I have no problem putting back some of the money I earn” in order to benefit the people who elected him, Cockayne said.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
43 comments:
I try not to submit anything to the blogs, although I do read them periodically.
I commend Councilman Cockayne, but must caution him, as Mayor Ward did, about confidentiality.
When the Boulevard was vandalized awhile back, I committed $500.00 from the city as reward money.
However, I soon learned that the informants name would be available if the reward came through the city.
When an informant did surface with usable information, I personallly provided the reward money so as to not jeopardize the individual that helped us.
I then contacted our legislators to see if there might be some legilation that would enable us to work around this, but am not aware that anything has been done.
Frankly, there should be some way that we can attract information and reward that person(s) safely.
Hopefully the reward will help this time, as it did last time.
I felt then and still do that it was well worth the money I put up.
Bill Stortz
Thanks for your insight, Bill.
"I try not to submit anything to the blogs, although I do read them periodically"
Liar
Steve,
Since when do you suck up to Stortz?
Art Ward is just posturing, he got beaten to the punch and is now trying to make it look good by raising these "questions" about Cockaine.
Cockayne is just posturing....period!
I agree with Bill. I'll put up $1000 to anyone who convicts a vandal of defacing school property. I see what happens to Bristol Central and it's terrible. Craig Yarde
If we had a leader in the police dept we would not have problems. But we have a guy whose is afraid of the union and cant guide his men. It shows big time.
WE HAVE ENOUGH POLICE TO WATCH OVER THE CITY BUT NO SUPERVISION.
I'll give $1
Maybe the Park Director should be treated like a Bristol Taxpayer .
Fine HIM $100 a day , make HIM pay for the damages done by others , and place a lien on HIS home .
after all ......
What's good for the goose .....
Here is a no brainer - if we are spending millions of dollars on these parks - dont you think we should protect them? Maybe we should hire an outside security firm to patrol the parks for awhile. As a city tax payer I am in favor of that - sure beats spending money to fix them up every other month.
sure beats spending money to fix them up every other month.
April 19, 2008 11:39 AM
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Yet .... if a taxpayer were to get sick of repairing vandalism of his/her property every month , Bristol leadership turns Really Nasty with them .
It has gotten to the point where if a taxpayer doesn't jump through hoops fast enough or doesn't kiss heiny quick enough , Bristol has someone on retainer to swoop in w/o public notice or court judgement and demolish private property and then make the taxpayer PAY whatever is deemed a 'fair' price for having his property / future distroyed .
....give it up blight nazi guy. No one is buying your poor little slumlord routine. When you've been adequately and repeatedly warned that your property is a danger to others, yet fail to make the necessary changes, it's time for the wrecking ball....No need to for public announcements....believe me, the public already knows your place is a hazardous dump....
Here is a case of Mayor Stortz addressing an issue without a lot of fanfare.
I would not have known about it if he hadn't finally put it on this blog, and those that don't read this blog will never know about it.
How can you prove that someone has vandalized anything with spray paint? It's the accusers word against the accused. There is not possible way to prove it unless the person was video taped.
Cocakyne knows this. It's safe to put up your own money for a reward when you know that it will never get paid out.
...how...about...people...owing...
back-taxes...
I guess what your saying is that all cases are decided by videotape or confessions only. Eyewitness testimony, combined with other evidence is pointless. The perpetrator can have the spray paint, eyewitnesses, maybe spraintpaint on his or her clothes, a history of delinquent behavior, etc and etc, but if they don't admit it, or if it isn't on videotape, then there is no case.
Were you one of the juror's for OJ's trial? IDIOT!!!
Thank you for the insight Mayor Stortz. Offering a reward seems like the easy answer, so it's interesting to see the counterpoint and the potential pitfalls for the whistle blower.
As a law student, I'm a little embarrassed that I did not know of that issue previously.
When an informant did surface with usable information, I personallly provided the reward money
And no one was prosecuted, arrested or charged with the vandalism.
Do you really think that the vandal will still have the spraypaint on their clothes?
Do you really think that an eyewitness to a teenage act of vandalism won't be another teenager that isn't going to rat out his buddies?
No one will be found to question. No one will be charged. No one will be prosecuted. No one will be fined. It's just the way it is.
April 20, 2008 10:04 AM;
It's good you're not a criminal prosecutor. There would be many, many more criminals running free.
What you are is a partisan hack, trying to spin a story against a good deed by a political opponent.
Give it up.
An artist provides the city of Bristol with a FREE mural @ the city pool , and some morons want to paint over the art and arrest the generous benefactor .
Just fill the dang pool with water and let everyone enjoy the art . A little culture won't hurt that much .
Try it , you may like it .
I do believe that the Boulevard situation did result in an arrest and conviction.
Maybe Collins can verify that.
There are many good teenagers out there that want to do what is right, and in this case, they did and apparently they were rewarded.
Boulevard was solved - it was teenage girl.
Anonymous said...
Boulevard was solved - it was teenage girl.
April 20, 2008 8:49 PM
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A product of the Bristol 'education' system that brainwashes the kids into thinking our military are terrorists and our president is refered to as hitler .
It's kinda amazing that more destruction hasn't occured to our beloved memorial sites .
gotta love bristol ....
11:06 - Please seek some help. Bristol has some excellent resources for mental health. I highly suggest you make use of them....soon. Gotta love Bristol indeed!
She might have been from another town.
"A product of the Bristol 'education' system that brainwashes the kids into thinking our military are terrorists and our president is refered to as hitler"
--You hit it the nail right on the head! Good analysis!
--Don't let the educators and/or the education groupies get you down!
I am a product of the Bristol educational system, and never received any of this "brainwashing." I learned a great deal about the sacrifices made by our armed forces, and the hard work done by elected representatives. In fact, I honestly don't remember a situation where the teacher let his or her political beliefs get in the way of their teaching.
Maybe things have changed since I graduated high school in 1999, but the teachers I had always did a good job of letting students come to their own conclusions about political issues.
csequin:
That's good to know because the teaching profession is known to be permeated with liberals who hate President Bush, who rarely support anyone but Democrats, who are apologists for radical Islam and are anti-capitalism.
I'm glad that recent history in Bristol according to you suggests otherwise. But I've heard stories contrary to that.
Why do we have a police force maybe we should get a real chief that can lead the force instead of some guy just waiting to retire. private people have to give money maybe the union should kick in or are they just takers.
Those who destroy public and private property should be seriously punished with triple monetary damages, legal fees and jail time.
Graffiti is an open invitation to more serious crimes and should be dealt with swiftly and severely.
We have an education system that refers to our president as Hitler??? Education groupies? Geez Louise, what planet are you people from???
Maybe if the mayor let the chief run his department, and gave him the necessary resources we could then hold him accountable.
Most crimes are prevented, not by law enforcement, but by taking proper precautions and by proper planning.
Why aren't we doing that?
hey 509 do you even have an idea were the pool is
anonymous (4:59):
(sorry Steve if I'm hijacking this thread)
In the interests of open discussion, I'll say that I'm a registered Republican, fiscal conservative, social moderate. I went through the Bristol school system, from Bingham to Chippens Hill, through Bristol Central, and then promptly went to a college that is well-known for its liberal viewpoints (it has Howard Zinn on faculty). I'm now at a law school which has a fair number of liberal scholars on faculty.
I can honestly say that in all of that time, there have been less than a handful of occasions when I have seen a teacher/professor let their political views get in the way of their teaching. As an intellectual minority in most of those situations, I have never felt like I was cheated by a teacher using their position as a soapbox for their own political views.
That isn't to say that it hasn't happened ever, or that there isn't a teacher or two who lets their views slip out. I have just found that 99.99% of the time, teachers and professors have done an excellent job of giving a neutral presentation of documents and letting the students do their own analysis.
cseguin,
You never need to apologize to me! I'm glad to have you posting here.
STEVE - QUESTION NOT RELATIVE TO THIS THREAD BUT WOULD LIKE AN ANSWER.
In the UCONN research on deceased voters, were any found on the Bristol rolls? I know that Bob and Ellie are really good about catching these things, but I was curious is UCONN found any that slipped through the cracks. I can't find their research online.
cseguin:
I've been through public school I this area, college and grad school. My viewpoints have changed considerably since I graduated college many years ago, not to mention going back to high school.
I don't know what you're referring to by your "cheated" reference, but I disagree that the political leanings of teachers and professors aren't conveyed in their classrooms on occasion. It's not an issue of "getting in the way" it's an issue of using their influence to improperly mold the minds of the impressionable. At the college level I don't think it's such a terrible thing. But at the HS level (the anti- death penalty fanatic Mr. Nave in Terryville for example) it's inappropriate.
Oh please. Maybe Kenny should just camp out at the park and catch those goons. And how does he know it's "punks"? Maybe it's a bunch of young Turk Republicans.
@ 9:00 pm
My "cheated" reference meant that I never felt like a teacher was putting their political feelings ahead of intellectual discourse. I would have felt "cheated" if I thought that a teacher was presenting a subject as a soapbox, rather than to teach something.
Again, my thoughts on this are my own and are limited by my own experience, so take what you will from my comments. In high school classes involving politics, history and the like, I was lucky enough to have teachers like Mr. Moylan, Mr. Pirog, Mr. Winters, and others who gave a neutral, balanced view on subjects. They weren't trying to mold minds a certain way, they were giving us the freedom to find our own beliefs and views.
I agree that it would be inappropriate for a high school teacher to try to turn students towards his or her beliefs. I'm just saying that, in my own experience, I never saw something like that, and I tend to think of myself as a pretty perceptive fellow.
Why do I get the strong feeling that cseguin drank the kool-aid ? ;-)
In the UCONN research on deceased voters, were any found on the Bristol rolls?
April 22, 2008 11:59 AM
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The Democrat Party in Bristol is much more organized than that .
Having the dead vote is sooooo last season .
It's a new and wonderful world in voter fraud .
Hey .... think about it ,we own the sec. of state , AND the attorney general .
I personally haven't voted less than three times in each of the last 7 elections .
gotta love this anonymous feature . Truth w/o penalty .
Thanks Steve .
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