The McPherson Park Department is investigating after officials found hundreds of pieces of bread in one of its city ponds.
“I didn’t know what I was looking at at first so I had to come out and look at it and then I realized it was bread,” said McPherson Park Supervisor Lauren Przymus.
Przymus said one of her employees called her on Thursday morning to report the soggy mess.
“He said the fountain wasn’t working and he had to cut the lock off of the thing over there because it was jammed shut, jammed with bread too,” Przymus said. “I think somebody thought it was a great idea to throw about 10 loaves of bread in here, 10 loaves of hamburger buns, hotdog buns.”
She said the bread caused the fountain to clog.
“We had to shut the fountain down so it didn’t burn up the motor,” she said.
Przymus added crews spent several hours unclogging the fountain and cleaning the pond.
“They had to bring trash cans in, nets, trailers to pick up as much of the bread they could. Like I said, it just disintegrated on contact so they just had to put it on a trailer and haul it to the landfill,” Przymus said. “The time we spend cleaning up trash, cleaning up vandalism, cleaning up things like this, we could be doing something meaningful, flower beds, mowing, edging, weed eating, things that really make a difference in our community instead of cleaning up a prank.”
On Thursday afternoon, there was still bread floating in the water. Przymus said the park department isn’t able to put fresh water into the pond until April when officials turn on the irrigation system in the area.
She said she and her employees plan to drain the pond and give it a thorough cleaning this summer. Until then, the pond will remain how it is, with trash and bread in the water.
Unfortunately, Przymus said this isn’t the first time the pond has fallen victim to vandals. She said crews have found numerous items in the pond in the past.
“It’s constant,” she said. “Bikes, benches, trashcans, trashcan lids, we have seen kids swimming in it before.”
Community members were stunned by the bread ordeal.
“I was shocked. That’s a lot of bread and trash. That’s overkill. That’s too much,” said Ashton Reitz.
“Somebody is either ignorant or full of malice,” said Justin Outhier.
Przymus said the park department is planning to file a police report.
