LINCOLN –The Lincoln Village Council is going to implement a new security camera to a children’s playground after vandalism was committed recently.

Due to the recent vandalism, Village President Phil Jordan said he priced a new camera to be put on a different building at the playground with a zoom on it so what’s going on can be seen easily. The playground already has security cameras, but it needs a new security camera that zooms in and gets a close-up shot.

“The cost of that is going to be less than $1,000,” Jordan said.

Vandalism has happened up to five times to the playground since it opened in 2001. During this recent vandalism incident, Jordan said all the picnic tables were damaged, one of the security cameras was damaged and stolen, and the portajohns were turned upside down.

“It’s just getting to the point where something has to give,” he said. “We need to make some new rules and we need to have somebody assigned to it and keep tabs on it. We need to do some things that stop some of the activities that are going on up there.”

Jordan said doing that will be better for everybody.

“There’s kids that use it every day in the summer and it’s fun to go out and see them laughing, having a good time and enjoying it,” Jordan said.

Another way to stop the vandalism at the playground is to close the playground from sunset to sunrise, Jordan said.

“The reason I say that is there are things going on that shouldn’t be going on at a children’s playground,” he said. “The parking area out there is being used for things that you can’t imagine. It’s uncalled for.”

The original agreement was to have the entrance of the playground between the ball fields where the two fences meet.

“That’s supposed to be the entrance and by opening that up to the parking lot, we have created a monster,” Jordan said. “That needs to be roped off and there should be no traffic in there whatsoever.”

Jordan said all the issues that are going on right now can be rectified.

“I think within a couple of months, we’ll be a lot of closer to where we should be up there than where we are now,” he said.

The playground was designed for young children up to 12 and 13 years old.

“Originally, it was valued at $125,000 and now it’s valued at almost a half a million,” Jordan said.

Julie Goldberg can be reached via email at jgoldberg@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5688.