(May 4, 2023) — Recently, Sikeston Parks and Recreation has seen an unusually high amount of vandalization to city park restrooms and are looking to the public for help.

“All the restrooms in the parks have been open for two months and we’ve just seen an uncommonly high amount of vandalism so far,” said Sikeston Parks and Recreation Director Dustin Care.

There are 12 restrooms in the Sikeston Parks and Recreation system, including seven in the Sikeston Recreation Complex. Several restrooms have been vandalized with everything from soap all over the floor, broken light bulbs, broken toilet paper dispenser, broken soap dispensers and toilet paper stuck in the toilets.

“Things happen and every park system deals with it, but it doesn’t make it OK,” Care said.

 When a bathroom is vandalized, it takes time, labor and using money from the budget to fix things like a broken toilet, partition, or soap dispenser.

“If we have to order something that is not in stock, then, depending on what it is, that restroom may be out of service for a week,” Care said.

It also takes time to clean up the bathroom and fix the damage. Sometimes that can take multiple people, delaying other things that need to get done to the parks.

“Restrooms are a high priority but there are other things we have to do as well,” Care said.

While Sikeston Parks and Recreation has dealt with staffing issues making it difficult to maintain all the bathrooms, they are now staffed to where that is not an issue.

Care said the bathrooms are routinely checked but it also takes very little time to vandalize them.

He reminds everyone to please be respectful and mindful that the restrooms are for public use.

 “We have to have them open for people to use in our parks,” Care said. “We have kids playing on playgrounds, we have shelter rentals, we have large events. We just can’t stay on top of it 24/7 but the last thing anyone wants to walk into is a restroom that has been trashed. It doesn’t shine positively on our parks system, and it doesn’t shine positively on the community.”