Vandals remove gate on community trail
Unknown vandals apparently on all-terrain vehicles caused about $1,000 in damage over the weekend on a portion of the Butler-Freeport Community Trail in Jefferson Township, authorities said.
State police are investigating vandalism to the trail gate system, which occurred between 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 6:45 a.m. Sunday.
On her morning bike ride, Chris Ziegler, president of the trail association, discovered the damage at the Great Belt Road trailhead.
Someone had removed a 10- to 12-foot gate from its hinges and dragged it 50 feet down the trail.
“The gate was laying in the middle of the trail,” Ziegler said Monday. “If anybody would have used the trail pre-dawn, they would have gotten pretty hurt because they would have hit it.”
Along with the removal of the green, farm-style gate, a yellow, collapsible steel post that is part of the gate system was uprooted from a concrete support buried in the ground.
Ziegler said the vandals likely used a winch or rope tied to an ATV to pull out the post. It appeared there were two different tire tracks that suggested a pair of ATVs were involved in the vandalism.
The suspects likely accessed the trail at the Jones Road trailhead, which was temporarily open beginning Saturday as part of the ongoing renovation work by the association. The group is installing new gates and removing and replacing old concrete at most of the trailheads.
Neighbors around the Great Belt trailhead reportedly did not see or hear anything suspicious over the weekend, Ziegler said.
The gate there was replaced on its existing hinges. Permanent repairs to the trail gate system are to be done in two or three weeks.
Ziegler said she was struck by the senseless vandalism.
“The world the way it is,” she said, “trails are pretty much where parents can take their kids and sort of forget what's going on. That's the frustrating part about this.”
Police said they have no suspects. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 724-284-8100.
