SMRs and AMRs

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Unintended consequences of Minnesota state shutdown

Vandals trash closed state parks

JIM ANDERSON and PAUL WALSH
Star Tribune
Updated: July 5, 2011

Vandals went wild at abandoned Minnesota state parks over the holiday weekend, wrecking buildings and driving around closed gates as the government shutdown drags toward its second week.

The most serious damage was at Afton State Park, east of the Twin Cities, where 12 people were taken into custody after a burglary and vandalism spree at three buildings before dawn on Monday, Washington County Sheriff Bill Hutton said Tuesday.

Vandals also hit dozens of other state properties in Minnesota, said Jim Konrad, head of enforcement for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

"This is just exactly the type of thing we're going to be seeing repeatedly as the shutdown goes forward," said Steve Morse, former lawmaker and DNR deputy commissioner who is now executive director of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership. "It shows once again how difficult it is to extricate the state from our lives, and the problems that are going to come to light once something like this happens."

The unintended consequence of leaving state parks unattended is one more reason to get the budget impasse resolved, he said. "They should have had enough people on staff to reasonably protect our parks," he said. "Everyone knows there's vandalism even when they're open. ... The reality is, you can't think of every eventuality."

(More here.)

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1 Comments:

Blogger Tom Koch said...

Anderson and Walsh are correct, it is hard to extricate the state from our lives. I wonder what excuse they have for vandalism when the state is 'operating?'

12:52 PM  

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