GREENVILLE — Police, Greenville City Park representatives, and a local organization are seeking to know the identity of a vandal.
A recent post on the Person Centered Services (PCS) Darke Career and Life Enrichment Center’s Facebook page said the following.
“Greenville, we need your help!! Vandals have already struck the Round House in the City Park. PCS individuals spent weeks bringing the building back to life. If you see suspicious activity PLEASE call 548-1103 and report it. PLEASE share this post. Maybe if all of us keep an eye out in passing we can make it stop. We have already filed it with Greenville Police. Thank you Officer Boyer.”
PCS just opened the Roundhouse on May 22. According to PCS Director Mark Middlecoff, the Greenville City Police are working hard on the case of finding the person who vandalized the building.
“We spent a lot of time putting this together from the old building — a good three weeks inside and out,” Middlecoff said. “It is disheartening, but the good thing is it wasn’t profanity or anything derogatory.”
Middlecoff said the problems in the park have escalated over the past four years, due to the drug problem. He is hoping the activity of the newly opened Roundhouse might curtail some of the activity, or move it elsewhere.
“They are just going to have to do it somewhere else,” Middlecoff said. “I understand you have an addiction, but it doesn’t have to be an addiction near all of these children.”
Further efforts to improve the Roundhouse include free landscaping, donated anonymously, and Performance Mortgage has donated a considerable amount of money for flowers and other landscaping needs, Middlecoff said. In addition, the Roundhouse offers opportunities for students to work community service hours, such as Greenville High School Med-Tech Prep senior student Alejandra Segura. Profits for the Roundhouse will eventually go to the PCS, but for now it will go towards some of the expenses, such as the lease, which is based on the electric bill.
“The Greenville City Park Board has been really great,” Middlecoff said. “Dale Musser (Park Board chairman) and Deb Fall (Park manager) have been working with us on getting this up and going. Nobody has done this in years, so we didn’t know what to base anything on, and they made it very easy. For the first year, we want to see how it goes. We wanted to open a little before schools let out, to get our routine together and prepare for the summer.”
The Roundhouse is open Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and sometimes on weekends.
As far as the graffiti on the Roundhouse, the police are doing their job, Middlecoff said. For those who have information on the vandal, the PCS would appreciate a call to the Greenville City Police Department at 937-548-1103.
