Turned-over bleachers, garbages on their side and beer cans were just some of the sights one morning in Centennial Park two weekends ago.

A somewhat regular occurrence, the destruction was probably caused by drunken teens in the park, according to Cpl. Tony Dolhan of the Jasper RCMP detachment. He said similar occurrences were “fairly common, it happens all year round for us.”

Though the park is restricted to visitors after 11 p.m., people often congregate there at night. “It’s a common practice for a lot of our underage drinkers and young adults to congregate in the parks and consume alcohol,” said Dolhan.

Dolhan suggests it’s a case of youth drinking in the park as some of their group is underage and not allowed in the bar.

While the RCMP will go to the park once alerted by the public, once they arrive, the culprits are “scattering like lost sheep,” said Dolhan. “So the members are attending, but unfortunately a lot of them aren’t located for the simple fact that they start to run.”

At this stage, no charges have been laid for any of the damage.

While Dolhan recognizes that there is a problem, he suggests this may not be resolved through policing. “It’s up to the communities and the people of the community to start taking the ownership of recognizing the problems and what they can do as a community to help this because a lot of the problems that are occurring are from community members,” said Dolhan. “What are we lacking as a community for the people?”

Dolhan said the RCMP is trying to work closely with the community by liaising on different community boards, but the struggle is getting the community together as they are already “taxed to the limit” time-wise.

The mischief is ongoing, but doesn’t happen all the time, he added. “We may go a month or so without any real problems.”