Vandals damage Delmar park

By Sheri Melvold | Tuesday, August 19, 2008

DELMAR, Iowa — A 24-year-old Delmar man has been charged with causing $5,100 in damage to Norton Park in Delmar and breaking into Delmar Depot.

Michael Cavanagh was charged with burglary and criminal mischief in connection with the vandalism and break-in at the park and museum Saturday night.

Clinton County Sheriff Deputy Sgt. Steve Cundiff said they arrested Cavanagh but believe there are others involved.

Cundiff said vandals took out lights in the park and damaged others. The door to the Delmar Depot was broken open. Items were taken from the museum, but Cundiff said authorities recovered some of them.

Cundiff estimated damage at $5,100.

He said anyone with more information is asked to call the Clinton County Sheriff’s Department at (563) 242-9211.

Delmar Mayor Patty Hardin said the city wants whoever is involved to be prosecuted. 

“I don’t think they took anything major out of the museum,” Hardin said. “But some of those items could never be replaced.”

Hardin said the lights were memorial posts in the park.

“They are old-fashioned posts and lights. They just ripped out the globes and destroyed them. It’s not so much that they were destroyed. It’s what they destroyed. We don’t know if we can replace the globes. We have an electrician coming to look at them,” she said.

— Sheri Melvold