Community Garden Vandals will perform Community Service in Garden

The five juveniles who were arrested for vandalizing the community garden this spring will receive a first hand look at how much work community volunteers put into the green patch at Brook Run Park.

After a hearing Tuesday in DeKalb juvenile court, an agreement was reached that will allow  the juveniles to keep felony charges of criminal vandalism off their records, and will give the local community garden 200 hours of community service, according to community garden members.

The youths will also pay the garden the $2,000 in estimated damage caused at the end of March.

During a night of vandalism, the youths damaged the majority of the garden's beds, as well as deer fencing and trellises in the garden, and beds of lettuce that were to be harvested and given to a local food pantry.

Each of the juveniles will be responsible for 40 hours of community service - which will begin immediately and need to be completed by August.

Arthur Simon, with the garden, said that he and another garden member met with the youths after the hearing.

All apologized, he said. The youths are scheduled to begin their punishment this weekend by pulling Bermuda grass from the paths in the garden and laying chips to keep weeds at bay. 

Simon was asking for garden volunteers to direct the young workers to other tasks in the garden to complete their community service stint.

"We will all benefit from this experience," he wrote.