Vandals Destroy Newly Renovated Field At Haverhill School
HAVERHILL (CBS) - It has to be seen to be believed. Somebody ran their car through a school playing field in Haverhill Tuesday night, and it's wrecked.
To make matters worse, the field was just renovated. It happened at the Dr. Paul Nettle Middle School. Now, after a year of work to rehab the field, they'll have to race against the calendar to get it ready for the school's opening day.
"They kind of hit the entire width of the field," says Nettle Principal Tim Corkery. And they did it under cover of darkness.
"They did donuts over multiple parts of the field. They ran over what appears to be some of the sprinkler head areas, so we're going to have to take a look at the irrigation system," he says.
Principal Corkery is plainly disappointed that someone would use a car to vandalize the playing field, especially since he spent the last year turning the field from a patch of dirt, to a place for sports and play.
"The school department trucked in 50 truckloads of dirt, redid the entire irrigation system, blew in the seed," he says. And before last night, it was good to go.
"It was starting to look real good. We were ready for the kids showing up in 26 days, and then somebody showed up late last night and decided to tear it up."
Now the city will have to spend thousands to repair the field with the hope of having at least part of it available for the kids when the school bell rings. "We don't want to just do a little patch. We want something quality, so the kids can say, I like coming to my school. I like playing here," Corkery says.
During the last school year the students at the school had only a blacktop area to play on while the field work was done and the grass grew in. The principal vows that won't be the case this year. Police are investigating the vandalism.
