Shed gifted to Tarentum community garden found destroyed

A much-appreciated storage shed given to Tarentum’s community garden was found Thursday to have been destroyed, said the Rev. Phil Beck, an organizer of the group that oversees the garden.

Beck of First United Presbyterian Church in Tarentum said he believes the shed at the Greg Blythe Friendship Garden on First Avenue, beside Dreshar Stadium, was pushed over and pulled apart sometime within the previous week in a deliberate act of vandalism.

There was no evidence a car had been used, he said.

Beck said he can’t be sure of the exact time it happened, since he and other garden volunteers aren’t there as often during the winter.

Volunteers tend the garden, from which anyone is welcome to take anything they want or need; they’re asked only to help take care of it in return.

“It’s definitely not wind. It’s not wind,” Beck said Friday. “Unless a tornado hit just that and nothing else, then it’s not wind. It was definitely most likely more than one person. We found a piece hanging in a tree.”

Beck and others cleaned up the debris Friday.

Beck said the Rubbermaid shed was worth about $500. A New Kensington family that belongs to Riverside Community Church and has been helpful at the garden for years donated it and helped set it up beside the garden.

The shed was used to store between $100 and $200 worth of garden tools and equipment and had been secured.

Beck said none of that was damaged or missing.

The shed made tending the garden easier, Beck said, because it gave volunteers a place to keep tools and equipment instead of having to carry them back and forth from home.

Beck said the incident was reported to Tarentum police. Police Chief Bill Vakulick could not be reached for comment.

Council President Scott Dadowski said he was unaware of what had happened until contacted by a reporter.

“My first question would be, ‘Why?’ ” Dadowski said. “What does somebody get out of destroying a shed? What is the reasoning behind it? To me, it makes no sense.”

Beck said the garden group will look into investing in surveillance cameras.

He said they will wait until spring to replace the shed.

“This shed, unfortunately, I think, is damaged enough it is not able to be put back up,” he said, noting its base had been broken. “We’ll have to start from scratch.”

Beck said the garden group is disappointed but undeterred in serving the community.

“We will have a growing season with or without a shed,” he said. “We’re grateful for the folks who came (Friday) and helped retrieve all the pieces from the hillside.”