On Tuesday morning, this newspaper showed one of the disrespectful acts that have taken place around the city in recent weeks. Pictured was the Memorial Park sign on Lake Shore Drive with Mayor Wilfred Rosas’ name being marked over.

Belatedly, the city Police Department issued a release of its own that later that afternoon with more detail on the problems that were noted in the OBSERVER article. “Damage causes city workers to reallocate resources to make repairs which in turn wastes time and costs the taxpayers money,” the release stated. “The Dunkirk Police Department takes these investigations serious and investigates them to the fullest extent and makes arrests in an effort to ensure voluntary compliance of park rules and regulations and to deter criminal behavior.”

Besides Memorial Park, other locations impacted included Wright Park and the skate park area; the Robin Street tunnel and the Lakefront Boulevard break wall. Some on social media have called for increased police presence with more officers. But this is not a perfect world, thus the graffiti.

This, however, is a community problem. Thankfully, some individuals will work to fix some of the wrongs, including the Revitalize Dunkirk group. Members are inviting other volunteers to join them at the Pier and Boardwalk gardens on Monday — with a rain date of Tuesday, any time between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., as they work with city employees to neaten the nine landscaped areas for summer events and visitors. Some equipment will be provided, but volunteers are encouraged to bring their own shovels, weeding tools and/or hand pruners. Contact revitalizedunkirk@gmail.com for more information.

As for the graffiti, we’re all in this together. Residents who see something — or have information — need to reach out to city police.