What kind of idiot vandalizes a children's garden that doubles as a garden for the local food pantry?
I hope they find the culprits. The garden in question was very beautiful, and a great place for younger children to play. The punishement should include mowing the lawn at the Doscovery Center and the Ross Park Zoo with a pair of scissors.
http://www.pressconnects.com/article...NTPAGECAROUSEL
BINGHAMTON - Vandals ransacked the Discovery Center of the Southern Tier sometime over the weekend, causing thousands of dollars in damage to the popular Story Garden.
The perpetrators overturned child-sized houses and fanciful statuary, toppled the bat box and broke slender saplings. They uprooted corn and tomato plants nurtured by children in Peter Rabbit's Garden - food that was destined for the Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse. Torn pages of books fluttered over the trampled mulch, next to smashed flowerpots and toppled metal frogs.
The damage sickened Director Pokey Crocker, who called it "vengeful." She estimated the damage at $25,000 to $30,000. It was discovered Monday morning.
"It is a travesty. I've been here 20 years and never seen anything like it," she said. "I do not understand what makes people do this kind of thing."
The vandals left behind a pile of beer cans, although they were removed in the morning. Using a ladder, perpetrators climbed the center's trademark bull and lined the cans up on its back, Crocker said.
Binghamton police are investigating the incident but currently have no leads, said Sgt. Gerald F. Kushner Jr. Binghamton Mayor Matthew T. Ryan authorized a $500 reward for information leading to the perpetrators' arrest, according to police.
There's been one previous incidence of vandalism there, Kushner said. That was when vandals damaged the bear house at the end of the display. This time, the bears escaped significant damage.
Vandalism has become a problem since a county bus bent the gates of Ross Park a few years ago, Crocker noted. That keeps the center - which shares Ross Park with the Binghamton Zoo - from being able to secure the property at nighttime.
The garden, whose displays are woven around themes in children's literature, was a $350,000 project that took four years to create. It was donated by the Junior League of Binghamton and officially opened in June 2007.
While the garden's entrance was blocked by yellow police tape Monday morning, visitors slipped under it to take stock of what happened.
"I want people to take a good look at it," Crocker said of the damage.
