Nearly $950,000 has been spent since 2018 to clean and repair vandalism in City of Windsor run parks and facilities.
During the April 3 budget deliberations, council approved an additional $50,000 to address the issue, increasing the parks and facilities 2023 budget to clean-up vandalism to $167,320.
James Chacko, Executive Director of Parks and Facilities, says the staff is always frustrated whether it's graffiti on a building or damage to a playground.
"The parks staff has a great deal of pride in the parks system. They do take things very much to heart when they see senseless damage, whether it's graffiti damage or to a playground. Even when you see people running through one of the beautiful a horticultural beds and pulling out flowers, you see things scattered about. They take a lot of pride in making the parks look as good as they do," he says.
Chacko points out that the budget reflects not just the costs for clean-up but the expense to replace damaged items.
"Say for example, unfortunately, a sink is damaged in a park, not only is it the initial response from staff to deal with it, which might require someone to come in off hours to deal with that issue. There's also the actual replacement of it, so all of those costs are captured against the overall budget for this," he says.
The additional funding will also be used to mitigate the inflationary cost increases in construction materials and services.
The budget request to council stated that during the past number of years there have been increased volumes in repairs to playgrounds, graffiti removal and power washing activities, along with extensive damages to washrooms in various parks that has required numerous repairs to infrastructure.
A graphic displaying the overall cost and budgets to address vandalism to city run parks and facilities in Windsor. March, 2023 (Image courtesy of the City of Windsor)
Costs related to vandalism in 2021 hit $296,483, a 171 per cent increase over the $109,088 recorded in 2020. The figure was also $179,163 over the $117,320 in the budget for that year.
While the final figure is still being calculated, the city is forecasting the final 2022 vandalism costs to be around $350,000, a $53,000 increase over 2021.
The city has spent a total of $942,515 since 2018 to address vandalism in city run parks, playgrounds, splash pads, sports courts and fields.
Chacko says the budget increase was requested because the numbers are still tracking higher than pre-COVID-19 figures when it comes to vandalism.
"There is that expectation from the community that when you go to a park that the amenities are first off safe and being in a maintained state, open and used," he says. "There's nothing worse for us than having a park washroom in a very busy park that unfortunately had to be closed due to vandalism and has to be closed for several weeks."
The budget report to council indicated vandalism that occurs in a parkland is often required to be addressed immediately as it often results in safety issues or offensive material that needs to be removed. These costs are beyond the control of the parks department and are in response to 311 complaints.
There are over 1,800 benches and picnic tables, 1,300 park lighting, 43 park washrooms, and 13 splash pads currently maintained by the city.