Fort Smith parks director frustrated with vandalism

Fort Smith Parks and Recreation officials have a message for Fort Smith citizens and visitors to the city’s parks: They are just as disappointed as park users about the graffiti and other vandalism.

“I can assure you our staff is just as disappointed as park users, likely far more, when a handful of citizens make conscious decisions to diminish the quality and condition of our park amenities,” said Sara Deuster, director of the city’s parks and recreation.

The city published a frequently asked questions report March 31, detailing the amount of vandalism to Fort Smith parks. The report stated that all 10 of the city’s outdoor parks are cleaned daily. The daily service includes unclogging toilets, restocking toilet paper, emptying trash, cleaning toilets and sinks, and reporting vandalism and vulgar or offensive graffiti.

“Unfortunately, some citizens chose to use the walls as an art canvas,” the report said.

Deuster said it is frustrating that the actions of a few negatively impact so many citizens.

“I typically do not like drawing attention to vandalism because it can sometimes result in more vandalism,” Deuster said. “However, it is more important to defend the work our staff perform and show the actual conditions they are up against.”

The department does not track how much time park employees spend addressing vandalism of restrooms or a running list of expenses outside of in-house repairs, she said. The time spent on vandalism does take away from what the department can do in terms of routine maintenance, such as painting pavilions, tree trimming, turnaround times for mowing and more, she said.

“Our staff spent several days repainting the outdoor restrooms,” Deuster wrote in an email March 13 that went to the board of directors as a follow-up to a social media post. “The lighter paint absolutely made them look ‘new’ wall-wise. Over the weekend, some citizens decided to set fire to the toilet paper rolls on the newly painted restrooms. We also installed paper towel and soap dispensers in the men’s and women’s restrooms at Creekmore (on) Monday afternoon. This lasted less than 18 hours before every single toilet was full of paper towels.”

Deuster said she directed staff to not restock the dispensers because the department would spend roughly $80 on supplies and 90 minutes to unclog the toilets if they did.

“I cannot justify dedicating (around) 20% of a full-time employee to bathroom duty for a single restroom,” Deuster wrote in the email. “We have 10 outdoor restrooms (River Park Events Building not included). If the future desire is to supply paper towels and soap dispensers in each restroom, we would need additional staff and operating funds.”

The staff also has dealt with several cases of fecal matter spread on toilets and walls of restrooms. They also frequently must snake out various articles of clothing in all sizes that citizens have attempted to flush down the toilet, Deuster said.

The department has been asked why they use stainless steel fixtures instead of porcelain. The answer is simple, Deuster said. Citizens would use a rock, hammer or other such tools to smash the porcelain fixtures.

“Sometimes this would be simple damage to the fixture,” Deuster said. “Other times this would result in a busted water line. Each comes at a cost to citizens, both monetary and usage.”

The report stated the city has tried locking the outdoor bathrooms overnight, but it never works. Staff members have tried a variety of methods for doing so, including welding the doors shut following the historic flood of the Arkansas River in 2019.

“Citizens have proven that if they want inside the restrooms, they will use any means necessary to gain access,” the report said.

Deuster pushed back against comments on social media that blame part or all of the problems on the homeless.

“We receive comments that the condition of the restrooms is a result of transient individuals living in the park,” she said. “We did go through a period where there were various encampments at different parks. However, we have not seen this issue continue over the past several months.”

The parks department will soon post “See it. Report it.” signs on the restrooms. They are asking citizens to report any vandalism on any park amenity directly to the parks office.

“We understand that people use social media to draw attention to issues that matter to them,” Deuster said. “We ask that citizens please ensure the issue is also reported directly to our department to ensure it is addressed as soon as possible.”