2 December 2019 — 1647 mst
Woodland Park needs better security to protect the
Community Spirit Monument from vandalism
Love Lives Here in the Flathead reports that over the Thanksgiving holiday, the Community Spirit Monument in Kalispell’s Woodland Park was vandalized. In October, the monument also was vandalized, with benches and signs damaged.
Over the weekend, the graffiti was removed and the benches covered with plywood to protect them. There are plans for repairing the benches, and we’ll let you know if and when help is needed.
Love Lives Here believes a greater response is needed as well, so we’re going to the Kalispell City Council meeting tonight (Monday, Dec. 2) at 7pm at City Hall in the council chambers at 201 1st Ave E., Kalispell to make a statement during public comments. If you can make it, we’d like you to come to the meeting, too. [From LLH action alert.]
LLH will tell the council that:
We would like to help as much as we can to make sure that the Community Spirit Monument is repaired quickly. Leaving these repairs until spring could invite more vandalism and cause damage to the monument.
That makes sense. The sooner repairs are made, the better.
But repairs will not be enough. Two incidents suggests there’s an ongoing campaign to vandalize the monument, and that there will be more attempts to damage and deface the benches and signs.
In lieu of posting a guard, or of organizing a citizen’s watch, a network of security cameras should be installed (or if already installed, expanded). Knowing that John Law is watching will deter some vandalism, and the images of vandals committing their crimes will make catching and prosecuting them easier.