Vandals over the weekend spray-painted graffiti that included racist and anti-police messages throughout Kenney Park in the Town of Tonawanda.
Town officials say they believe the vandalism happened late Saturday or early Sunday and it was discovered later that morning.
The park at 2000 Colvin Blvd. was long known as Kenney Field and is familiar to generations as the home to a blue U.S. Navy F9F-6P Cougar jet and now as host of the town’s annual Independence Day fireworks display.
Vandals left a shorthand, anti-police vulgarity on this green slide at the adaptive playground at Kenney Park in the Town of Tonawanda over the weekend. Police are looking for the culprits behind the graffiti.
Employees found graffiti – including a slur directed at African Americans and a shorthand vulgarity aimed at law enforcement – on the Veterans Memorial, adaptive playground, signs, buildings and the Rails to Trails path within the park.
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Town Supervisor Joseph Emminger issued a statement Sunday afternoon on social media denouncing the graffiti.
“Some of the graffiti is racist and I want to be clear that the town does not condone, nor will we tolerate this taking place in our town,” Emminger wrote.
Video recorded at the park by WGRZ-TV showed graffiti left on a slide at the accessible playground, on a sign that shows the American Sign Language alphabet and on the building that houses the playground’s restroom.
This sign detailing the American Sign Language alphabet also was targeted by vandals.
Crews from the town’s Youth, Parks and Recreation Department were out first thing Monday to begin cleaning up the graffiti, said Carl Szarek, a Town Board member and liaison to the department.
Szarek said graffiti also was left on stop signs, a recreational trail that runs along Kenney Park and a storage building on the north end of the park near its athletic fields.
By 8:30 a.m. Monday, workers had washed away much of the graffiti, though a dripping circle of blue paint remained on the jet’s canopy.
A large blue splotch on the canopy of the U.S. Navy F9F-6P Cougar jet parked at Kenney Park in the Town of Tonawanda is visible Monday morning as town crews worked to clean up graffiti left throughout the park over the weekend.
The town estimates the cleanup will cost more than $1,000.
Szarek said there are no security cameras at the park. He said town officials had counted on Kenney Park’s high visibility at the well-traveled intersection of Colvin Boulevard and Brighton Road as deterring vandalism of this nature.
He said town police are investigating the incident and canvassing the neighborhood to see if anyone saw something at the time.
Town officials say they will seek to prosecute whoever is responsible for the graffiti to the fullest extent of the law.
They ask anyone with information about the vandalism to contact town police at 716-879-6614 or to use the confidential tip line at 716-879-6606.
“I just hope we catch ‘em,” Szarek said Monday. “I’d love to see the parents have to pay for the cleanup.”
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