June Hertzog has lived across from Kansas City’s Indian Mound Park for more than 50 years.
She’s seen the good as well as the bad.
“The neighborhood has kind of been a small town,” Hertzog said. “For years it was really quiet, but now it’s gotten to a point where there’s more drag racing.”
At night from her home, Hertzog can hear cars racing around the park’s mound. One of her neighbors even caught a vehicle driving on top of the hill — which is considered to be part of the park.
“You can go out there and watch. Somebody has even taken [the wall] out twice,” she said.
Wall damaged April 10, 2017
Wall damaged again on June 10, 2017
The Indian Mound Neighborhood Association recently asked neighbors what improvements they would like done to their parks. One of the items on top of the list is installing security cameras in the park.
“It would be better,” said Oscar Reco, a father of two.
The neighborhood association has already installed cameras at Budd Park to help monitor crime and vandalism. Neighbors along Independence Avenue have installed cameras too, which they said helped police solve a crime.
“They come into the park and they are getting up on top of the mountain and they are doing circles. They have a lot of cans and are drinking beer and causing trouble,” said Reco, who believes cameras would deter the “bad behavior.”
According to the neighborhood association, other improvements residents would like to see include repairing the historic shelter at Budd Park and establishing a dog park at the Northeast Athletic Fields.
