DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – A Decatur monument damaged by vandals will cost several hundred dollars to repair, and those who helped bring it to town are upset by the actions of those who caused the damage.
"We're angry," Eric Mueller, who helped raise funds for the 9/11 memorial near Lake Decatur, said. "Here is this beautiful memorial and instead of enjoying it, someone has to try and destroy it. There is no reason for it. There is a lot of sentiment here. There is no reason for it."
According to the Decatur Park District and Park District Police, the 9/11 memorial was damaged sometime overnight Wednesday. Mueller found the damage while performing maintenance on the memorial. Someone removed a bench and threw it into Lake Decatur. Two other benches were also loosened.
"It is just too bad these kinds of things happen,” Decatur Park District Executive Director Bill Clevenger said.
Clevenger’s team was able to retrieve the bench from the water and replace it. It was a little scuffed up.
"It just makes you sad. It makes you sad that people don't have more respect for these treasured monuments in our community,” Clevenger said.
Every year, the park department budgets $30,000 to $35,000 to repair vandalism to park property. Clevenger said that is money that could go somewhere else.
"Neighborhood parks throughout the city need work,” he said. “We could put money into those. We could put money into new playgrounds. We could put money into basketball courts. Think of the multitude of things we could do with those dollars."
With the repairs made, Mueller and Clevenger hope there is not a repeat in damage to the memorial. Crews have put added enforcement on the benches to keep them from being removed again.
"Hopefully in the future they will be a little better protected and we won't have to do this again,” Clevenger said.
The park district said they repair dozens of cases of vandalism each year. Decatur Park Police are investigating what happened to the memorial. Anyone with information is asked to call them.
