Columbia and Marion County citizens have been concerned with the vandalism at City Park for quite some time, but with help from the community and a big project in the works, it can be quelled.
Columbia Police Chief Michael Kelly said police simply can’t be everywhere all the time, and the department doesn’t have the staffing to keep a patrol car at City Park all night. While some residents have questioned why there is a CPD vehicle permanently at Walmart, Kelly said Walmart is paying for an off-duty officer to be there just for the season because of a threat.
Recently, one of the mirrors in the men’s restroom at City Park was smashed, and the sink was stuffed with paper towels and toilet paper.
If residents see criminal activity taking place at City Park, Kelly strongly encourages them to either use the Relay app or dial 911 to notify law enforcement.
“We can’t go every hour and check the bathrooms to make sure someone hasn’t torn all the toilet paper off and clogged the toilets up. With our call volume, we run from one thing to another,” he said. “We need to have people who utilize that to take care of it. If you see criminal activity or see somebody tearing the place up, let us know and we’ll come down to the park and arrest them.
“We need to identify the very small group of individuals who is causing our park and our public facilities to be vandalized and hold them accountable, so the good people who want to just go enjoy an afternoon with their families will be able to do so.”
Kelly was actually in Bossier City, La., Thursday visiting with the city’s parks and recreation department to get some ideas to bring back to Columbia. Bossier City has the largest playground in Louisiana that Kelly said is absolutely incredible after making the five-hour trek across state lines. He added he plans to implement a lot of the characteristics of that park into the planned upgrades the city has for City Park.
“We have a new park and new playground coming. It’s going to be incredible,” Kelly said. “It’s going to have to be taken care of.”
The police chief added staffers with the Bossier City parks department told him, “If you build it, they will come.” He and the City of Columbia are looking forward to having that type of draw in Columbia that the entire community can take pride in.
In May, Kelly revealed preliminary plans for major renovations and upgrades to Friendship Park within City Park, including several new pieces of playground equipment and the installation of a state-of-the-art protective groundcover material in certain areas to prevent injuries. It has been roughly 20 years since the last upgrades were made at Friendship Park, making a lot of the equipment out of date.
Most, if not all, of the actual playground equipment is expected to be replaced with modern, child-friendly and safe unit options that exceed the standards of the playground equipment industry. Cost-wise, the city has currently approved $250,000 to fund the project, which will come strictly from the 3% tourism tax.
The current plan is to hopefully begin construction in mid-to-late August, with the end of the year earmarked as the potential completion timeframe.
