Lowell Township Supervisor Jerry Hale wanted to keep the heated bathrooms in the North Grand River Riverfront Park open during the winter for those who might be out for a walk on the park’s bridge. But vandals have hit the restrooms one too many times and now they are closed for the remainder of the winter.
“It’s just very discouraging,” Hale says.
The most recent vandalism was what Hale describes as gang insignia written with permanent marker on the men’s bathroom wall. Before that, the township had found that every single automatic soap dispenser had been ripped off the walls. And even regular bottles of soap left on the sinks went missing.
While the bottles of soap may have been relatively inexpensive, the automatic soap dispensers cost about $185 apiece to purchase and install. When the permanent marker was discovered on the wall, it was the last straw. “I finally had enough,” according to Hale.
There is a security camera at the park facing the pickleball courts and that catches a corner of the bathroom, but Hale says there is no point in installing additional cameras to fully capture the exterior bathroom doors.
“What good is it going to do?” Hale asks, noting that there would be no way to prove which person coming out of the restroom did the damage.
The North Grand River Riverfront Park is located behind Walgreens and near the corner of Bowes Road and Main/Fulton Street, but problems haven’t been confined to this location. Hale says it’s his understanding the City of Lowell has experienced vandalism in its park restrooms as well.
The Riverfront Park bathrooms are closed and locked now, and Hale anticipates they will reopen sometime in April.
Anyone who has information about the damage to the bathrooms can contact the Lowell Charter Township office.
It’s very sad when someone gets joy from this type of behavior.