Dave Granteed of the West Wyoming Parks and Recreation Board points out some of the damage done by apparent vandals to the Dailey Park Christmas display.
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
Board members joined by community in fixing damage to Christmas display
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The large Christmas display in West Wyoming’s Dailey Park was damaged on Monday night. West Wyoming police are investigating the vandalism, while on Tuesday night members of the community joined up to clean up some of the damage.
Kevin Carroll | Times Leader
WEST WYOMING — After discovering late Monday night that pieces of Dailey Park’s extravagant Christmas display had been vandalized, Dave Granteed sprang into action.
Within 24 hours, Granteed and his fellow members of West Wyoming’s Parks and Recreation Board, along with members of the community who had helped create the display, were back in Dailey Park cleaning up and fixing the affected displays.
“It’s amazing to see how much the community cares,” Granteed said as he helped clean up Tuesday night. “I don’t know why anyone would do this, but we’re coming together to fix it.”
Traces of the apparent vandalism, which is currently being investigated by West Wyoming police, could be seen even as the cleanup effort was well underway: display pieces knocked over, ornaments from the display’s Christmas tree shattered on the ground.
Granteed said that he had noticed that something was off when he went to turn the power on to the display Monday night.
“Only a couple of the light displays actually turned on when I hit the power,” he said. “I started noticing that almost all of the displays had been unplugged.”
It’s frustrating, Granteed said, because this was the first time in a number of years that such a display had been created in Dailey Park — and the first time likely ever that a display of this stature was made, all with help from small businesses and members of the community.
“We announced our plans for this display and instantly, we had something like 45 sponsors instantly who were interested,” Granteed said. “It took us about three weeks to get everything set up.”
The sponsors, from citizens like Granteed himself to local businesses like Antonio’s Pizza and Rainbow Jewelers, were each designated a spot inside the park, and they were able to design and decorate their piece of the display themselves.
Brianna Gray, co-owner of Pearllee Creations, stopped by the park Tuesday with a group of friends to inspect her own display. Some of her pieces, including some large handmade lollipops, were knocked over but not seriously damaged.
“The damage isn’t so bad, everything is fixable,” Gray said. “I just don’t understand why anyone would do this.”
Granteed said that officers were reviewing surveillance footage from nearby buildings, and that he had installed a number of trail cameras throughout the park.
Despite the frustration, Granteed and his fellow Rec Board members aren’t deterred.
“This is one of the best things this community has seen in awhile,” Granteed said. “Everyone came together to do different things, and the end result is amazing.”
