KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The Unified Government of Wyandotte County said one of its parks experienced some of the worst vandalism from fireworks in recent memory.
A new restroom at Pierson Park, near South 59th Street and Metropolitan Avenue, was damaged when people set off fireworks inside the building. City employees spent hours cleaning up the mess.
A picture posted on Facebook shows what workers found when they arrived at the park Monday.
“It’s absolutely frustrating. This is something we do see more around the holiday season, particularly the 4th,” said Angel Obert, Assistant Director for the Unified Government’s Parks and Recreation department.
The restroom was built in the past year using about $500,000 in COVID-19 relief funds. The Unified Government said it chose the project because more people have spent time in the park during the pandemic.
“We were fortunate to leverage some of those funds, like I said, parks have been used more than ever, so we were able to do some improvements like this nice new restroom here,” Obert said. “And we just have seen some problems with vandalism, so it is frustrating.”
The vandalism hasn’t just happened at Pierson Park. Obert said most of the parks in the county have been hit by vandals, but there are four parks that have seen the most damage, at least recently.
The parks department said it’s working to raise awareness about the vandalism issues in parks across the county.
