One of the benches at York Park was stolen this week. It is valued at $2,200 and was placed by MainStreet Portsmouth in Bloom volunteers, who are adding to the city’s riverfront park’s amenities. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Portsmouth Police Department.
Submitted photo
PORTSMOUTH- There’s a first time for everything, and sometimes that’s not good.
The volunteers with MainStreet Portsmouth In Bloom are the folks responsible for the beautiful floral decor around downtown and in Boneyfiddle. One of their special projects lately has been making improvements to York Park down on the riverfront, making the area more attractive and useful for residents.
Part of that has been installing new metal benches at the playground for families to enjoy as kids play. This week, someone stole one of those benches.
It’s the first time one of the projects has been defaced in such a way. For the volunteers, who are planning even more improvements to York Park, it’s been a heartbreaking experience. To complete the park, volunteers have planned to add picnic tables, grills, and more benches,
“The bench cost $2,200. It’s a tremendous burden because we spent almost every dime we have on plants mulch & decorating,” said Sue Burke, who leads the team of volunteers. “I’ll have to figure out a way to replace it and a better way to secure them to prevent more theft.”
But the York Park benches aren’t the only ones the group has installed in the area.
“We have benches at Alexandria Park that are almost 20 years old,” Burke said. “We’ve never had this happen before.
” I was ready to cry.”
As of press deadline Friday, it still had not been located. Anyone with information about the theft should contact the Portsmouth Police Department at (740) 354-1600.
Reach Lori McNelly at [email protected] or at (740) 353-3101 ext. 1928. © 2024 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved
