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Several years back and in an attempt to upgrade Mt. Hood parkland, then Mayor Patrick Guerriero instituted an otherwise good plan to upgrade the place with glacial material from Boston's "Big Dig," as offered by the firm of Modern Continental. The area from which trees were harvested was a no-forestation mess; filled with broken glass, old tires and what not. Conservation nuts made a lot of unqualified noise about cutting the trees but that was the first attention the area had ever received. That parkland had been illegally excavated and otherwise neglected from day one. The complaints were not qualified.
Eventually the work got going. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts granted enough money to fix the 12th tee, hole and fairway. The engineering was excellent. The design outstanding. Sod was placed all over and it was really beautiful. Everybody concerned was upbeat about it, even former detractors. Just before Thanksgiving we had snow fall to the depth of about four inches. It was very pretty and the snow did not inconvenience Thanksgiving travelers. On Mt. Hood, however, a four-wheel drive vehicle got onto the 14th fairway off Penny Road and carefully made its way up the hill of the 13th fairway to the new 12th. There the malcontent proceeded to run the four-wheeler all over the new work, digging deep ruts from one end to the other and possibly breaking the installed irrigation pipes. Next morning, as usual, I walked up the tower road and onto the 12th tee area. There I saw the damage. Retreating back to the FAA road area, I met Kenny Foss who is on the Mt. Hood Board and I told him what I had seen. He went and saw for himself. We called the Melrose Police who came and photographed the vandalism. Others from the Board did as well. The damage is estimated to be in the $50,000 range unless the irrigation needs replacing. At this time Melrose detectives are on the case and have leads which we hope will pay off and the culprit apprehended. It was a crime at the expense of the people and kids of Melrose. January 3, 2003
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