You don’t see this everyday.

Actually, you never see it.

At the Chesterton Town Council’s meeting Monday night, two juveniles—a girl and a boy who’d been caught vandalizing park equipment at Dunes Friendship Land earlier this month—issued a public apology accompanied by their mothers.

The Chesterton Tribune does not publish the names of juvenile offenders.

“I’m sorry for this stupid thing I did,” the girl said. “I know I made a huge mistake and feel bad for what I did. And I promise never to do it again. Please forgive me.”

“I am willing to do what I can to improve the park,” the boy for his part said.

“They’ll do anything, whatever it takes,” the mother of one of them promised.

There is something they can do, Park Superintendent Bruce Mathias told the Tribune after the meeting: sand off the graffiti.

“Your honesty is appreciated,” said Member Jim Ton, R-1st. “The next step is to make it right.”

Member Emerson DeLaney voiced his appreciation of the kids’ parents. “I commend the parents for setting the tone at home for doing what’s right,” he said. “And I commend the young people for stepping forward.”

The two kids were part of a group involved in the vandalism.

In other business, the council heard a lot of thank yous:

•Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg thanked Ton for driving a dump truck on Saturday during Duneland Rebuilding Together and the council for allowing the Street Department to clock some hours on the projects.

•Patricia Carlyle of the Tree Committee thanked Schnadenberg and his crew “for literally doing the heavy lifting” during the Arbor Day celebration on Saturday.

•And Mathias thanked Schnadenberg for “sending over some guys to Dogwood Park and removing the diseased trees” there.

Meanwhile, members told Eric Kroeger of the Future of Chesterton Foundation that they would investigate the feasibility of hiring as an intern at least one of the graduating seniors who participated in this year’s Chesterton High School Economic Honors project.

Kroeger noted that last year 12 of the seniors found jobs as interns in Porter and Lake County, two of them with the Town of Chesterton. This year his hope is to find internships for 17 of them, at an estimated cost of $2,500 to $3,000 for each.

By consensus members authorized VFW Post 2511 to hold its annual Poppy Days sale May 14-15.

Posted 4/27/2010