A favored playground in Seminole was found damaged and disassembled by police officers Sunday morning, March 28.

Seminole Police Officer Gabe Wind went to Seminole’s Dinosaur Park to find it ripped apart with beer cans all around it. Dinosaur Park is located in the Municipal Park behind the Splashpad. It will be closed until further noticed.

Officer Wind said, “When I arrived I saw that pieces of the slide that belonged to the park equipment was laid out in the parking lot and another piece was laid outside of the fence by the park. Upon further inspec tion I observed multiple beer cans by the ballpark and a part of the wood fence that ran around the playground was placed on top of the dugouts. Tire marks from where vehicles spinning their tires were left as well.”

Police Chief Jon Withers said, “It is a terrible, senseless crime that will cost the City of Seminole’s citizens money to replace. Let alone take away from the youths’ enjoyment who play there. It is being investigated in hopes that ones responsible will be caught and held accountable.”

Last year Seminole Police took 41 reports of vandalism, and so far, at the end of March (just three months into year 2021) there have been 10 reports.

Vandalism affects a com munity’s quality of life for many reasons:

Vandalism takes away time from city employees to get other important tasks completed.

It takes money to fix problems caused by vandalism, which then takes away budget for another job to be completed.

It makes City Council members leery about putting in new parks or nice recreational equipment around Seminole.

Public Works Director Bryant Baker said, “We need people to stop vandalizing in Seminole. Every time it happens, it leaves our city employees to clean up a mess, and not take care of other important issues in the City. People complain that we aren’t taking care of various issues and this is part of the problem. Our budget and time keep going towards cleaning up these types of incidents.”

City Manager Steve Saxon said, “It’s hard to have our crews out there determined to make Seminole a better place and to have it destroyed as recklessly as this. Vandalism isn’t a fun sport, and it isn’t a recreation activity. When we catch them, we intend to make sure they understand how much we do not appreciate their needless destruction of city parks. We need to public’s help. If you see suspicious people lurking around let the police department know about it.”

If anyone has any information about vandalism at Dinosaur Park, please contact Seminole Police Department by calling 405-382-9340. Citizens may remain anonymous when giving information.