Park rangers at Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area have announced that vandals who vandalized a portion of George W. Childs Park in Delaware Township, Pennsylvania. have been identified, located and charges are pending.
In a March 30 news release, the National Park Service said "bright red paint proclaiming 'I (heart) Tara' was scrawled across the original 1892 date stone that once stood at the former entrance to the site, while more red paint was used on the walls of the woolen mill to write 'I (heart) Anthony.' The graffiti is dated March 21, 2023." Park officials sought the public's help in identifying those responsible.
"Not only is graffiti a crime, but it is also unsightly and damaging to the surface defaced, and removing it takes time, money and staff," Chief of Resource Management and Science Kara Deutsch said in the release. "Depending on the area damaged and what the surface is, it can take park staff quite some time to remove, and often, a damaged site can never be fully restored to its original condition.”
A Kern River Conservancy volunteer cleans up graffiti left behind in the Valley.
| Kern River Conservancy
Childs Park has been closed due to storm damage since 2018, but construction on the final phase of restoration is set to begin this spring, the Park Service stated in an April 1 release, and its re-opening has been scheduled for 2024. Some of the damage has been attributed to winter storms Quinn and Riley.
"At Childs Park, the wind, ice and snow uprooted trees which caused entire hillsides to slide downhill, taking the trails with them," The Park Service wrote in an Oct. 24, 2022, release. "Trees crushed trail bridges and choked Dingmans Creek and the waterfalls and caused heavy damage to CCC-era historic buildings.
"Following the storms, park crews prioritized clearing and opening roads, assessed the widespread damages to trails, infrastructure and structures and sought funding for repairs," the Oct. 24 release continued. "Most trails were re-opened within a year except for a few where damages and repairs were more costly and more complex, such as Lower Hornbecks Creek, Van Campens Glen and Childs Park. Damages to the Adams Creek trail were so severe that the trail has been closed permanently."
Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area is home to several Native American archeological sites, structures from early Dutch settlement and the colonial contact period. The region was a frontier of the French and Indian War, the Park Service reported.
