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(GRAHAM YOUTH BASEBALL | CONTRIBUTED PHOTO) A portion of the graffiti that was spray painted at the Graham youth baseball and softball fields concession stand.
After several acts of graffiti around the city of Graham, Graham Police Department and others impacted by the vandalism are seeking more information.
GPD Chief Brent Bullock said the department was notified of several acts of vandalism with graffiti around the city, starting in August with several locations around the Young County Courthouse.
GPD was notified Wednesday, Aug. 28 by Young County Juvenile Probation regarding the graffiti around the courthouse which was removed by those under juvenile probation for community service hours.
Photos of the graffiti were provided to GPD, the Young County Sheriff’s Office and to Young County Judge Win Graham. Along with the photos, information received from the incident was passed along to local law enforcement officers and investigators.
Only one day later, Thursday, Aug. 29, GPD patrol officers responded to the Old Ag Barn at Firemen’s Park in Graham for the same type of graffiti outside the wall of the building.
The officers responded a month later on Saturday, Sept. 28 for a report of graffiti at the same location, this time painted on the inside of the building.
The Graham Youth Baseball organization in Graham made a post on their social media page Thursday, Oct. 10 with pictures of multiple areas at the fields which were vandalized with graffiti.
“I went down there probably about three weeks ago and noticed a little graffiti, but didn’t think much of it, and then when I went down there last Thursday they had done a lot more as far as the concession stand, one of the dugouts and then on our equipment room,” Chris Reese with the youth organization said.
A company volunteered to pressure wash the areas impacted, but not everywhere could be washed due to the fact it could strip the paint. Before repainting those areas, the organization is looking to install some measures to help mitigate potential vandalism.
“We are going to start with some lighting because it is pretty dark down there at night,” Reese said. “Oncor does have some guard lights, but we are going to try to put up 8-10 lights down there on all the press boxes. It should be lit up pretty good once we get it done.”
A community member offered to donate cameras to monitor the youth baseball and softball facility, but due to the fields covering a large area, there would be a large number of cameras required.
Community support was something that Reese said was not in short supply after the vandalism occurred at the youth facilities.
“The difference between the youth sports here in town (such as) basketball and football is they get to use the school’s facilities. (With) soccer, baseball and softball we have to use the city’s (facilities and) basically we maintain them. …Most of the public knows how much time and effort is spent down there at the fields, so they’re very supportive,” he said. “I think there were over 100 comments (online) from people. Several people reached out to me wanting to donate either their time or their money to get it cleaned up.”
A $1,500 reward is being offered by members of the community and organization for information leading to the arrest of the individual or individuals associated with the vandalism at the youth facilities.
“At this point, we do not believe that the graffiti is associated with any known or established group of people,” Bullock said. “We have been in contact with the members of Graham Youth Baseball and have been advised that a reward has been offered to anyone who gives information about this case that leads to the identification and prosecution of the individuals involved. Graham Police and Graham Youth Baseball encourages anyone who has information on this graffiti to contact the Graham Police Department at 940-549-6441.”
