Lake Accotink donation box stolen
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| The donation box was by the marina. |
The donation box at Lake Accotink Park was stolen at some point during the early morning hours of Oct. 24. Thieves used power tools to cut the steel support post.
The donation box had been installed in April 2014 by Friends of Lake Accotink Park (FLAP) to raise money for items the county was no longer able to pay for due to repeated cuts to the Fairfax County Park Authority budget.
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| All that’s left. |
The money deposited in the donation box was collected frequently, so at “most the thieves got maybe $5 or $10,” says FLAP President Meghan Walker.
“It’s not like it’s a gigantic revenue generator,” she said. FLAP used funds from the box for thinks like a grabber to pull trash from the lake. It’s especially dispiriting, as a volunteer recently refurbished and repainted the box.
“We don’t know if we’ll try to replace it,” Walker says. “We don’t want to put another box in the ground and have it stolen. We might have to look at other ways to raise money.”
Meanwhile, the Park Authority has begun the process to rewrite the Master Plan for Lake Accotink Park. That effort is on hold until the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality issues a report on the lake in 2017.
10 responses to “Lake Accotink donation box stolen”
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The real problem here is that the parks department doesn't have enough money for basic upkeep of our parks.
The real problem is the BoS: Board of Stupids.
I wish I could've seen the faces of the idiots who stole the box when they realized they wasted all that effort for so little money!
Jerks.
considering how close to the ground they made the cut, as if trying to preserve the box, I wonder if they were actually after the box itself
maybe the people who stole our car, needed gas money
The problem here is that Fairfax County, in order to keep green space, has too many parks, some of which are totally unused but require upkeep. Maybe consolidation and sale of unused [properties should be considered.
The green, "unused" property has plenty of value in and of itself. There are already developers waiting around every corner, wringing their hands and drooling like dogs, ready to jump at any chance to build more, and more, and more, without any regard for the fact that the less green space we have, the less healthy we and our surroundings become. Why should they care? They are greedy, materialistic, capitalistic fiends who don't live here and don't care about any consequences–short- or long-term, so long as they get their money.
If you want to live in a concrete jungle, feel free to move to one. Meanwhile, I will gladly fight–and yes, pay–to keep and even promote a wide variety of living things in and around MY hometown.
Anon 6:38 Hear, hear!
Not sure which is more gob-smacking: a donations box in the middle of a Fairfax County park, or idiots spending the time to vandalize it.
The Friends of Lake Accotink Park are offering a reward of $500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators. Contact [email protected] or Fairfax County Police with information.
Gifts may still be made to Friends of Lake Accotink Park with Visa or MasterCard via:
1.Phone (Call the Fairfax County Parks Foundation office at 703-324-8582)
2.Online at https://www.fxparks.org/donation/store52/agora.cgi?p_id=00007
Include Friends of Lake Accotink Park in the ‘Additional Notes’ field.
Repeated budget cuts to Fairfax County Parks in recent years have forced elimination of staffing positions that might have been able to provide the after-hours supervision to prevent acts of this kind.