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BY DARLA L. PICKETT
Staff Writer 07/24/2008

EMBDEN -- Organizers of the summer-swim program for children at Embden Pond this week are looking for the vandals who disassembled their dock at Sandy Beach and stole five wooden panels from it.

"They tore our docks apart, and then walked out with four of the four-by-four sections and one of the two-by, worth about $600," said Pam Heustis Graf, who directs the two-week swim and water-safety program.

Somerset County Sheriff's Detective Lt. Carl E. Gottardi said deputies have been to the site and investigating the damage and theft that occurred last week.

Graf said people interested in the swim program have donated and assembled seven sections of aluminum docking with cedar-plank tops. The dock extends 50 feet into the water with a 24-foot "T" at the end, she said.

Graf said the two-week swim and water safety program includes 150 children from Anson, Embden, Solon, New Portland, Norridgewock, Madison, Bingham, Moscow and Athens.

Embden pays for the staff, and help also is provided by 11 high school teens and 13 junior high students working as aides, for a total of 30 staff members to handle 150 registered students.

The swim program had stopped about a dozen years ago, said Graf, who was an instructor for 22 years. She said Embden officials decided last year to bring the program back.

The problem, she said, is never the students, but members of the public who use the beach after the students leave at 2:30 p.m.

"They do not respect it. We have invested thousands of dollars in equipment for this program and it is there for anyone to use, except for the six hours, Monday through Friday, that we are on the beach," Graf said.

"We put up a building as a changing facility for our students, we have a portable toilet and a trash barrel brought in," Graf said. "On weekends, people use the changing house as a toilet, throw dirty diapers in the woods around the beach and let their dogs leave feces everywhere. They have fires on the beach, and leave bottles, caps and cigarette butts everywhere. The glass is dangerous."

Graf said she hopes the thieves will return the planks when they learn about the program.

"The beach is for the public and we leave the dock in all two weeks for the public to enjoy," said Graf said. "All we ask is that they don't destroy it."

Darla L. Pickett -- 474-9534, Ext. 341

dpickett@centralmaine.com

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