SANFORD, Fla. – The City of Sanford continues to deal with vandalism issues at its parks.
Parks department employees estimate they are spending thousands of dollars on repairs and replacements.
City of Sanford Parks Superintendent Benson Josue said they would like to add more cameras throughout the city’s parks, especially ones he considers to be highly visible like Lee P. Moore, McKibbin Park and Washington Oaks.
“Everyone across the board wants to ensure that we try to, not try to, that we stop what’s going on with the vandalism,” Josue said.
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But in the meantime, the repairs and replacements are costing the city a pretty penny.
“We are spending thousands of dollars just either refurbishing the tabletops , changing out the picnic tables, the trash cans,” Josue said. “We have to replace them. Alone, the trash cans just cost $1500.”
Scratches on tables, names engraved into poles and tables and scratches on the Washington Oaks park sign are just a few examples of what can be seen at the park.
Josue said it’s disheartening to see what is happening.
“It’s devastating, that’s the case sometimes,” Josue said. “But I do believe that we have more people who come up to the parks. I do think that will help out with limiting the vandalism that we have especially the common ones which is the trashcans, the picnic tables and the restrooms.”
Back in 2023, the city was forced to close the bathrooms at Coastline park after repeated vandalism.
Josue said each camera would cost about $5,000 plus the cost associated with putting in a cellular or Wi-Fi connection to power the cameras. He said he feels this would be a good investment for the city and adds parks that do have cameras have seen a decrease in vandalism.
“When you look at cameras that are being installed into our Coastline Park or Fort Mellon Park, you see that it lessened a lot of vandalism,” Josue said. “It hasn’t stopped it, but we’re able to see who commits the vandalism, let’s do a police report, the police go over the footage and go ahead and try to catch the person doing the vandalism to stop it. It helps out in the long run I would say instead of us just putting a Band-Aid on the situation.”
We spoke to Sanford resident, Kelsey Razee while she was walking her dog at Washington Oaks Park on Monday. She said she would be in favor of more cameras in the city’s parks.
“You know, making sure, especially children, that they’re safe and they can come out and enjoy the equipment that’s out here and not have to feel like they’re being exposed to things that they should not or not be safe themselves,” Razee said.
Josue said they are currently working on gathering information to make sure more cameras are added to the budget for the next fiscal year.
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