Keystone Heights City Manager James Booth devoted much of his monthly report during the June 13 city council meeting to what he called “vandalism, laziness and negligence” at city facilities: repeated damage to water fountains, bathrooms and electrical outlets at the dog park; broken split-rail fences used as balance beams; skid marks and e-bike burnouts on the newly resurfaced tennis and basketball courts; and permanent-marker drawings on picnic tables at Keystone Beach.
In one case, Booth said, a rider put the rear tire of an e-bike down on the tennis court, gunned the accelerator and burned a quarter inch through the acrylic surface into the asphalt in two places, then damaged the Trex decking of the Keystone Beach pavilion. The city identified the adult male, and the case will likely go through the Clay County Sheriff’s Office and the courts, Booth said.
Most recently, a woman twice painted images on the tennis courts at dusk. After a city social media post about the vandalism drew heavy backlash — with many commenters suggesting the city simply “put up a sign” — the woman contacted the city within an hour, apologized and tried to clean it herself. The paint would not come off, and the city paid a professional cleaner $850 to spend six hours lifting it from the acrylic surface.
