For the third straight month, vandals have struck at a local park and done extensive damage.

In April, a horse damaged new ball fields at Loretta French Park. Last month, a large medal eagle sculpture at Kohler Park was knocked from its perch and damaged.

And then Sunday evening vandals struck at the Oberg soccer fields, mangling an iron raven weathervane.

“It’s really been a severe amount of vandalism we’ve seen so far this summer,” Rodda said. “And it has gone beyond the typical spray paint and minor damage that normally occurs. Nothing is normal anymore, these are serious acts of vandalism.”

The most recent vandalism involved the vandals climbing atop a picnic pavilion, where the weathervane was located.

“It took some work,” Rodda said. “This wasn’t the act of someone randomly breaking things. The individual or group responsible set out to destroy the sculptured weathervane.”

Purchased with the 1 percent for arts funds, required for municipal projects, the weathervane was an iron raven with directional pointers designating North, South, East and West.

“Once it was removed from the roof it was bent into a mangled mess and then stuffed into a trash can,” Rodda said.

Other acts of vandalism in parks in the Chugiak and Peters Creek area include the uprooting of flowers at Peters Creek Park and Kohler Park.

“We’ve even had reports of motorcycles and ATVs riding on ball fields,” Rodda said. “Each time there is damage done and it takes away money for other park improvements and future park projects.”

Rodda is still trying to get an estimate for repairing the bronze eagle damaged at Kohler Park. He said the costs to repair Loretta French could have been about $5,000 if it had not been for the efforts of volunteers to keep costs down.

As for the raven sculpture, Rodda said he is attempting to reach the artist who made it to determine what it would cost to repair.

“It’s not destroyed, but it will take some work to straighten it out and repair,” he said. “My guess it will take a week or two of work to restore it to its original form.”

Rodda is asking the community to help watch the parks and to report any suspected vandals to the police or the parks and recreation office.

“We need to do something to nip this in the bud before it gets out of hand,” he said.

Reach the reporter at darrellbreese.@alaskastar.com.

This article published in The Alaska Star on Thursday, June 25, 2009.