
January 21, 2022 · 0 Comments
By Sam Odrowski
Graffiti recently plagued Island Lake Family Park in Mono, leaving much of the playground equipment and some park benches tagged with spray paint.
On. Jan. 11 Dufferin OPP received a report of mischief from a concerned citizen regarding graffiti at the park, at which time an officer arrived at the scene and an investigation commenced.
At this time, there’s no suspects or information, so anyone who may be able to help the authorities should contact Dufferin OPP at 1-888-310-1122 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS), where they can remain anonymous.
Mono Mayor John Creelman told the Citizen, he was almost at a loss for words when he saw what happened.
“I was horrified,” he said. “For one thing, the park is closed, and it’s fenced off, so somebody had to have made a real effort to get into the park to do what they did.”
Mayor Creelman also noted how the graffiti gives the town a negative appearance and comes at a significant cost to clean up.
“It not only junks up the park, it’s offensive to people who see it and try and investigate what some of the tagging actually means. And at the end of the day, we need to expend monies to repair the damage done, and that’s not good for our residents,” he remarked.
Mayor Creelman said if any residents witness anyone causing vandalism or spray painting graffiti in the act, they should call the police or if they find it after the fact, they should call the Town of Mono at (519) 941-3599.
“We want to be on top of this. It does not happen to us all the time. We’ve had other instances, but they are not as severe as this particular one,” he noted.
When asked how soon the graffiti could be cleaned up, Mayor Creelman said the winter weather will likely cause some delays.
“The paint has to come off and, in some cases, the supports and other parts need to be repainted. This is something you can’t really do terribly well in the winter,” he told the Citizen.
“We are investigating ways of maybe doing it, but I would say that we’re going to have to wait for warmer weather before we can fully restore things back to the way they were.”