'A lot of pride:' Vandals tag Pewaukee park; neighbors replace hate with love

PEWAUKEE -- Vandals with spray paint caused a lot of damage at Liberty Park in Pewaukee on Sunday, Sept. 16, but by Monday morning, neighbors had come together to clean it up.

Cleaning up vandalism at Liberty Park in Pewaukee

The vandals hit a playground, basketball court and adjacent tennis court. Some of the language was offensive, relating to hate and white supremacy.

Neighbors discovered the vandalism on Sunday afternoon.

"What we found was a lot of vulgar language, things like that, tagged all over the tennis court surface and the basketball surface. Basically tag anything and everything in that park," said Kelley Woldanski, director of parks, recreation and community services for Pewaukee Parks and Recreation.

Vandalism at Liberty Park in Pewaukee

Vandalism at Liberty Park in Pewaukee

It is unclear who is responsible for the tagging. However, officials said it appears the vandals broke into a locked box for a youth soccer team -- and used spray paint intended for lining a soccer field for this vandalism -- painting profane language, swastikas and "white power" messages.

"My staff worked for almost half the day (Sunday) trying to get off as much as they could," said Woldanski.

Vandalism at Liberty Park in Pewaukee

Neighbors later began their own effort to clean up the mess.

"We came back (Monday) morning, first thing, to finish it up, and one of the things we intended to do was clean the playground, and it was clean," said Woldanski.

Parks officials also found the hate messages replaced with messages of love from neighbors.

"I feel a lot of pride. I think that's beautiful. I'm really proud of the residents -- that they stepped up and that they cleaned this, and that I'm able to enjoy this with my kids. Way to go! Way to go! Way to step up and make it known what the standard is in this neighborhood," said Karen Swyers, visitor.

Parks officials said it was unclear how much it would cost to clean this up, but they insisted the parks are safe -- and should be inviting to everyone. Pewaukee police said they're working with parks officials to determine who did this.

Vandalism at Liberty Park in Pewaukee

Cleaning up vandalism at Liberty Park in Pewaukee