Some minor vandalism occurred during the opening weekend of the Apgar Family Water Plaza. Someone or some people tore up pieces of the brand-new sod and flung mud around.

Just two days after a grand opening ceremony and ribbon cutting for the brand new Apgar Family Water Plaza near Mega-10 Park in Marshalltown, the Parks and Recreation Department announced in a social media post that the feature is temporarily closed due to vandalism and the need for maintenance work.

While the news of vandalism swiftly and understandably drew strong reactions and condemnations, Public Works Director Heather Thomas clarified that the closing is largely due to maintenance. Crews were changing water valves on Monday morning, which was the primary reason the plaza was temporarily shut down.

She said there was minor vandalism with no graffiti or mechanical damage. The vandalism, which is believed to have happened either Saturday night or Sunday morning, amounted to children throwing sod and mud around, and there is no structural damage to any aspect of the plaza itself or the water jets. It will, however, require city staff to refill the system and get the chemicals back in balance.

“So that’s the purpose and the reason for the closure today, and yes, absolutely because of that minor vandalism that occurred, we are doing some extra cleaning and maintenance of the system that we weren’t anticipating to have to do quite yet. But that was not the primary driver of it, necessarily,” Thomas said. “But we do really want the public to realize, you know, hey, this is an amenity that you guys all have a part and a responsibility as far as sharing to make sure that it continues to be a welcoming space.”

The plaza is already under camera surveillance, Thomas added, and the five individuals committing the acts were captured on video.

“We’ve clogged some stuff up, but not the end of the world. It wasn’t clogged to where it wasn’t operational, but we looked at the weather this week, and actually we thought it was supposed to rain a little bit today (Monday) so we thought today was better than tomorrow,” Thomas said. “Our hope is to get this back up and running here shortly, but again, just from a chemical balance standpoint, it’ll take a little bit to get those in balance before we can open back up. So that’s why we went ahead and closed it for the full day.”

The goal is to reopen in the next day or two, and Thomas and Parks and Rec Director Kelsie Stafford asked the public to employ a “See something, say something” mentality to encourage appropriate behaviors at the Plaza.