The incident happened in the early hours of July 3 when fireworks reportedly were ignited on the park’s playground, leaving damages to the play structure, safety netting and support structures.

“They set up an aerial firework at the base of the slide in the play structure. It went up through the slide and then came out, and then went head first into the turf in the playground and started the turf on fire” Cedar Hills Mayor Denise Andersen told the Daily Herald.

While the blue turf feature at Harvey Park is mostly fire resistant, the spot where the firework landed was not, Andersen explained.

“And that turf was just newly replaced in April,” the mayor said.

City of Cedar Hills

American Fork police were able to locate and arrest the suspects two days later on July 5.

Zion Kongaika, 18, of Lehi and Sasmson Gleave, 19, of Pleasant Grove were booked into the Utah County Jail on suspicion reckless burning, a class A misdemeanor, and discharge of fireworks in a prohibited area, an infraction, Lt. Stuart Fore wrote in an email sent to the Daily Herald.

“The pair were seen and identified using the park’s surveillance cameras and good investigative work by officers,” Fore said in the email.

According to Andersen, vandalism seems to spike during the summer when students are out of school. In this case, she said she doesn’t think the teens intended to cause such destruction. “However, their carelessness caused this mass destruction in our park. So I think kids just aren’t thinking through their choices and, you know, the long-term effects of what they do,” she said.

With a massive hole in the playground, now surrounded by caution tape, officials said it may be the remainder of the summer or longer before the section of the park is back open.

Andersen said she didn’t have exact figures when reached, but she estimated the damages could cost around $100,000 to repair.

While Andersen said the news of alleged vandalism is disappointing, she added that the incident is creating a sense of awareness in the community.

Local resident Annie Sundwall came up with an idea to celebrate local parks through acts of service. The “Mark Your Park” campaign will run at the end of July into the first week of August and aims to encourage residents to take on stewardship acts like cleaning and picking up trash at their local parks.

“I think the parks we have locally contribute to the overall feel of our community. When our parks are clean and well maintained it helps both visitors and the local citizens get a feel for the pride we feel living in Cedar Hills,” Sundwall said.

She was sad to learn about the vandalism at Harvey Park, where she takes her 3-year-old to play. Sundwall plans to return to the park once the damage is fixed. However, she feels this is a time to bring the community together and preserve outdoor play areas.

“We’re choosing to turn it into an opportunity to remember how lucky we are to have so many parks to enjoy in our community and commit to doing our part to keep them beautiful places we can all enjoy,” she said.

As for Harvey Park, the splash pad, pickleball and tennis courts are still open.