Pick up a shovel and get to work. That could be part of the punishment for teen vandals who rutted up the hay meadow which provides the only county revenue associated with the Swank Park Wilderness Area, near Bush City. The teens may pay their restitution a shovel full at a time.
County Commissioners agreed to ask newly-elected County Attorney, Steve Wilson, to include the repair of the vehicle ruts left in the property as part of sentencing or any plea agreement that will follow the criminal vandalism case to be brought against the youths involved in connection with the recent incident, in which they allegedly fled the scene after disabling the vehicle in the wet and soggy hay field.
First District Commissioner Les McGhee says he’d like to see them out there with a shovel fixing it themselves. The incident follows county efforts in recent months to find heirs to the Swank family that left the 160 acre plot to the county in the mid-1980s as long as it’s used for outdoor recreation. Late last year commissioners decided the park was more trouble than it was worth and hoped to give it back to any surviving heirs.
