Lambert Park

Graffiti at Lambert Park, located at 100 Verona Ave. on the north end of the city, was reported this morning.

Besides this and one confirmed at Farrall Park on Otis Street on the Southside, we are not aware of other instances of graffiti being reported recently.

UPDATE 11:25 a.m. (By Howard): Batavia City Council President and retired City of Batavia Police Lt. Eugene Jankowski Jr. reacts to the discoveries -- "I'm very disappointed that someone took it upon themselves to destroy our beautiful parks with that graffiti. It's very, very terrible to see that happen. ... It's going to take public input. Hopefully somebody saw something and then maybe can provide some information to police and help them resolve it. I haven't talked to anyone on city staff about it yet -- hopefully there's a way to clean that up and get it back to the condition it was prior to the damage done to it."

Photo by Howard Owens.

There was a community event with Mercy EMS at Lambert Park yesterday and Dayne Burroughs spotted Officer Christopher Lindsay in the midst of an intense game of Jenga with two of the children who attended and sent us these pictures.

"It's so nice to see the community and police interacting positively, with smiles and laughter," Burroughs said. "Batavia still is a 'small town' in some ways."

A 9-year-old-child is reportedly stuck in a swing set at Lambert Park, 100 Verona Ave. City firefighters just arrived on scene to extricate the child.

UPDATE 5:08 p.m.: The child is safely out of the swing now.

Batavia Police are investigating an incident at Lambert Park, located on Verona Avenue, that occurred sometime this past Sunday or Monday.

Police received a complaint of vandalism at the park late Monday afternoon.

Playground equipment was damaged using large rocks and racist remarks were found scrawled in the mulch.

Officer Jason Ivison says the markings in the mulch appear to be fresh and he believes the vandals were in the park sometime Sunday evening or Monday during the day.

The Department of Public Works will repair the damaged playground equipment.

Anyone with any information can contact the Batavia Police tipline at 345-6370 or at 345-6350.

Kids participating in the city's summer program at Lambert Park toured the recycling center at Genesee ARC this morning.