The February report of the city of Ceres Public Works Department to the Ceres City Council showed that a considerable amount of parks and streets staff time is spent fixing what vandals are damaging – and cleaning up debris left in homeless encampments.

The report completed by Director of Public Works Jeremy Damas noted that the facilities staff cleaned up homeless debris five times at Independence Park and three times at the Ceres American Legion Memorial Building and once at Roeding Heights Park.

Independence Park sprinklers have also been the subject of continued vandalism. Six times the park sprinklers there have been deliberately damaged by vandals.

City workers had to make repairs to park sprinklers at Ceres River Bluff Regional Park five times in February. The city also had to repair fencing damaged at the park five times.

Sprinklers also had to be repaired four times at Roeding Heights Park and once at Sam Ryno Park in southeast Ceres because of vandalism.

Vandals have also wreaked havoc along the bike pathway on Hatch Road where bollards have been damaged. Bollards are the sturdy, short, vertical posts that keep out larger vehicles.