A member of a community service group in Franklin Township has requested that cameras be installed at a pavilion following vandalism at Phifer’s Ice Dam Park.

Kermit Heiland of the Franklin Township Lions Club spoke to township supervisors at their meeting Tuesday about the damage done, which resulted in no electricity in the bandshell.

(A Picnic in the Park event had been scheduled for Sunday but has since been canceled because of the weather forecast.)

Heiland said he’d like to have surveillance cameras put in, and either the township could pay for it, or depending on what the cost, the club could pay for it, since it has to be done.

“We have people destroying property over there, lights in the park are broken, busted, we’ve had electric bikes running all over the place, they’re going through the grass into the playground area where little kids were playing and race around,” he said.

“We tried to stop them, they refuse to stop; someone’s going to get hurt.”

Heiland noted that Palmerton and Lehighton stop any bikes from going in the park.

“We have a park; somebody’s destroying it,” he said. “It’s there for the kids.”

Heiland said the park holds sentimental value to many.

“I want to keep it as a park, I want it there for the kids,” he said. “I don’t want nobody hurt.”

Therefore, Heiland said that he believes a monitoring system should be put in so they can see who’s destroying the stuff.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be kids,” he said of the vandals. “But, we don’t know who, because nobody sees it.”

Heiland said that at the baseball field they do have cameras up, but nobody knows if they work.

“I would like to have them up there in the building, and down at the bandshell,” he said.

“There’s a sign in there that says no bicycles or skateboards allowed; why can’t you stop these electric bikes?”

Heiland said he wasn’t saying that nobody can ride a bike in the parking lot, but added that racing around is not good.

Supervisor Fred Kemmerer Jr. said the township could foot the bill.

Afterward, supervisors on a 2-0 vote agreed to have the Franklin Township Lions Club fix the faulty outlets at a cost up to $1,000.

Supervisor Leroy Kemmerer Jr. was absent.