Charlottetown aiming to catch park vandals

The City of Charlottetown has a new plan in place to stop what it calls a growing wave of vandalism in its parks.

'Our aim obviously is to catch these people.' — Sue Hendricken, City of Charlottetown

On Wednesday night, vandals spray-painted graffiti on almost every structure in Victoria Park, the city's largest park, including windows. The veteran's memorial was also damaged. City staff found poppy plants and shrubs pulled from the memorial, and magnolia and ash trees were stripped of some branches. Liquor and pop bottles were tossed all over the square.

Parks manager Sue Hendricken told CBC News Friday the city has had enough.

"We have a very clear plan in place as far as how we're going to deal with this particular problem we're having, especially in Victoria Park," said Hendricken.

"As far as the details of the plan, we're keeping that pretty close to our chest right now because our aim obviously is to catch these people."

The city does have a park patrol during this time of year, but Hendricken said there is more to the plan than that. She added that the new measures won't cost the city more money.

Cleaning up the damage will mean taking city staff away from doing maintenance on all the city parks.