The Salem Parks Department

It seems that the Salem Parks and Recreation Department needs to get on the ball and start doing their job in cleaning up our local park and recreation facilities. From the vandals and lowlifes that trash our public facilities such as public park bathrooms and the shelter houses, to those who willingly and wantonly throw out their trash at the parks in our town.

Instead of doing something about it and cleaning up our public parks from those who are illegally smoking and leaving their cigarette butts around the parks they have did little to nothing. These  places include the Parkview Baseball Fields and Depauw Park along with the worst park in the area called Lake Salinda.

Some of this mess has been left at these places by campers who are illegally camping there overnight while the City of Salem Police Department is sleeping on the job while these individuals are illegally camping in our public parks. One might also notice the traffic from and to these parks at hours that are prohibited from public use such as at midnight or three or four am or anywhere in between.

Some of that sort of activity going on late at night in our public parks is obviously people up to no good including drug abuse and other criminal activities. Such behavior is being tolerated by the local police force who aren't any longer making rounds to check for people illegally camping in our parks and therefore leave their trash, food wrappers, cups, styrofoam, condoms and other disgusting waste in our parks. Especially Lake Salinda though I have regularly seen needles at both Lake Salinda as well as the Parkview Baseball Complex even around shelterhouse and along the roadside on occasion.

I guess the City of Salem Parks And Recreation Department doesn't really care about doing anything about cleaning up our public parks that we pay taxes on other than mowing grass for 6 months out of the year. While the facilities are beyond disrepair and nasty in many cases and need to be cleaned up. Including teaching a good cross section of people to respect the environment and cleanup after themselves which seems to be a common problem in Washington County.

Furthermore is the trash that one finds on the banks of Lake Salinda and Lake John Hay as well by those who are camping in those areas which are both illegal to camp in yet there is vast evidence that people have been camping and leaving their trash and refuse everywhere for someone else to pick up. That and being washed into the waterways to be inhaled by fish and other wildlife including deer, etc.

Since the director of the Parks and Rec gets paid 41,000 a year plus and has a decent sized staff that they can't get off their duffs and actually make sure these parks are cleaned up and not having trash all over the banks of the lakes. Not to mention the local Salem City Police cracking down on people that are leaving their trash everywhere as well as the drug abuse problem which leads to needles in our parks and along our roadsides.

Would you want your child or family member to step on a dirty disease filled needle that got left by the roadside or in the park because the slugs that use them are too lazy to clean up after themselves? Tbink about it!

So why isn't Salem Mayor Troy Merry and the rest of the City Council getting on the ball and working on fixing the drug problem in Salem along with the Washington County Court system and the two LAW and ORDER judges that allow this sort of travesty to continue.

Not to mention the good old pork rind eating boys at the Washington County Sheriff's Department which are often too chubby to even bother with chasing down criminals judging by the weight that some of them carry around over their protruding belts. Try some professionalism guys and at least try to get in shape. Instead of coddling the criminals that you know and are more than likely related to.

While we are at it, why don't we ask why the Washington County Prosecutor's Office why they are more interested in staging theater activities in our public courtrooms rather than prosecuting hard core criminals and those in society that have bad intent and bad actions towards their fellow people. Let's ask why is it that the good old boy local lawyer network at the Washington County Prosecutor's office is more interested in doing Masterpiece Theater in front of the local judge and juries than putting hardcore criminals and those endangering others into jail.

Would it because if they weren't showing off so much they would actually have to do their jobs and focus on putting drug dealers, thieves, burglars, domestic violence abusers, child molesters and various other people who commit crime behind bars. Wonder when the good old boys and few girls of the Washington County Prosecutor's Department will do their job. That will be covered in a future topic.
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Salem's Increasing Hobo Population

Salem, Indiana is generally a relatively nice community with people who really do care about their neighbors, their community and have a sense of civic pride at least to some extent.

That being said, the quality of life in Salem, Indiana is being brought down by a variety of factors including the local drug use problem that exists in most counties and most communities in America. Salem is now starting to have problems with homelessness which in past times was hardly a problem but since the economic crash of 2008 and 2009 and the illicit drug trade in Salem, Indiana the homelessness problem has skyrocketed.

The point is that the homeless problem that is increasing in Washington County is having bad effects on the community at large along with the local economic situation which could use a definite improvement.

From some of my sources, I've been told that there are now homeless camps in a couple of areas of Salem that have sprung up in out of the way places that are harder for law enforcement to monitor and patrol. Not having seen these two places I would suspect that this is largely due to the drug problem in Salem and with the inability of the local population to hold jobs or at least try to stay clean.

Why isn't Washington County stepping up public safety and security to make sure that in Salem and other communities these people are in some decent level of shelter and housing instead of allowing a hobo encampment to remain in the city limits in one place and at the edge of the city of the City of Salem

One of the places that one finds much in the way of trash and refuse is along the Salem By Pass carrying State Roads 60 and 135. Of which it is alleged that inside of the bypass in the area between SR 160 and the Wal Mart Supercenter these is now a homeless camp somewhere in that area. Why is this allowed if true because obviously there is no law enforcement activities against such camps to encourage those to find shelter.

Instead what this allows is for more petty crime, violence and criminal activities against those in society that are following the law, paying their taxes and without being bothered or harassed by such individuals. Another such encampment was at one time in the center of Salem behind a local shopping center however that area did flood severely in 2017 so its quite possible nothing is any longer at that location.

With our community having problems due to opioids, methamphetamine, cocaine and other serious drug issues, this isn't the type of public policy that we should be allowing or encouraging. Not to mention the trash and waste that is being produced without any oversight by government bodies such as environmental agencies and health departments. This is leading to more problems by tolerating such activities that create more problems and more dependence as well. It's time for Salem City government and the Washington County government to start cracking down on these activities including the rampant drug use in our city and county and finding ways to combat the problem.

Not by encouraging these behaviors because they just want to push the issue out of the way and behind closed doors like they have with political corruption and corrupt police and politicians and lawyers. Active Search Results (ASR) is an independent Internet Search Engine using a proprietary page ranking technology with Millions of popular Web sites indexed.