Vandals mar beauty of Dunedin fountain

The owner of Douglas Village offers a reward to help catch whoever is responsible for stealing a statue and causing $2,000 in damage.

By LEON M. TUCKER

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 29, 2000

DUNEDIN -- What was once an elegant depiction of birds playing in a spring has been reduced to a half-empty tank of dirty water with an exposed pipe spurting irregularly.

Now, a Dunedin philanthropist is asking for help finding those responsible for stealing one of three heron statues and causing $2,000 damage to the fountain, which is in the courtyard of the new downtown business village she built earlier this year.

"Beauty and serenity are a benefit to everyone in this community," Gladys Douglas Hackworth, owner of Douglas Village, said in a released statement. "Obviously these vandals need to learn their value too."

The Scottish-style Douglas Village just south of Dunedin's Main Street opened on March 31 and has become home to eight shops.

At the village's center, the fountain used to display three steel herons intertwined over an oversized half-shell and fountain shower. Now the long-neck bird sculptures are gone, and all that is left is the tilted half-shell with a 2-foot crack down its middle.

"The (herons) were ripped off the platform and were lying loose in the water," said Gina Ealy, who manages Douglas Village. "I didn't want those to get stolen so I brought them inside."

The statues now lie in a corner opposite Ealy's desk inside her Broadway office.

Barbara Vecchio, who first alerted Ealy to the damage Monday, said when she left her store the night before the fountain was intact.

"Then (Monday) morning when I came in at about 9 a.m it was obvious -- vandalism," said Vecchio, owner of the That's Beautiful boutique near the fountain. "It's sad because the owner has invested a lot of money in this facility."

Part of a $1.3-million downtown redevelopment effort initiated by the city, Douglas Village cost $900,000 to construct and helps anchor the western edge of downtown where recent improvements include landscaping, a brick parking lot, extension of the Pinellas Trail and decorative lighting.

"I'm really disappointed," said Bob Ironsmith, Dunedin's economic development director. "We've never really had anything like that. It's disheartening to see such a random act of vandalism after she's put so much into that private investment."

In August, Ealy reported the theft of the first heron statue. It too was ripped from the fountain base.

As in that incident, Ealy notified the Sheriff's Office and filed a report. This time Hackworth is offering a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

"I just can't believe somebody would do something like that -- it's horrible," said Lisa Sinkiewicz, who works at the Key West Aloe at Douglas Village. "You never know someday if someone gets really upset and throws a rock through a window or vandalizes the store -- it makes us worry about our safety."

Anyone with information about the damaged fountain is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 582-6200 or Crimestoppers at 1-800-873-TIPS.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright