Local officials and organizations met earlier this summer in an effort to form the Levittown/East Meadow Graffiti Summit, which would target incidents of not just graffiti but also vandalism and other inappropriate behaviors witnessed in the community. The group, which included Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray, Councilman Gary Hudes, police department officials from Levittown and East Meadow, civic leaders and chamber representatives, discussed ways in which small business owners and homeowners in the area can protect themselves from being vandalized. After a recent incident where some local teenagers destroyed the fence behind Pathmark on Hempstead Turnpike, those who met at the summit realized that their actions are certainly necessary.

Murray noted that she and Hudes kicked off this meeting and saw a great outpouring of local police departments, school districts and chambers of commerce who want to help.

"There has been a little bit of a spike in vandalism and similar kinds of incidents in the last couple of months," Murray said, attributing the increase to it being summer. "[We] have a duty to our taxpayers who pay to maintain this infrastructure to try to pursue restitution when they're ruined [or] when they're damaged."

Murray noted that the fence behind Pathmark, which is maintained by the town, was quite costly. Luckily, an off duty officer witnessed the youngsters vandalizing the property and a successful arrest was made.

"This fence is not cheap. If it ends up having some consequences on the family, maybe some other kids will not be similarly exposed to reeking any havoc for the rest of the summer," Murray said. "We want to send a clear and hopefully chilling message to anybody who may be thinking about destroying other people's property that at least as far as the Town of Hempstead is concerned, we will vigorously pursue restitution."

The supervisor added that it's important to the town to help protect small business owners. While this recent incident of vandalism occurred at Pathmark, many small businesses see a spike in graffiti and other forms of vandalism during the summer months.

"It costs small business owners millions and millions of dollars each and every year to repaint their buildings, fix broken doors, etc. We have to help our business community [and] homeowners to fight against this rise in vandalism," Murray said. Luckily in the case at Pathmark, the vandals were caught in the act.

"This is sort of a rare success story in that sense. It was a great call by the off-duty police officer, he was being very observant and it is a huge help for us because most vandalism occurs in the night hours when no one's looking," Murray said. "I just hope that this serves as a detriment to anybody else who may be a little bored and thinking about destroying somebody else's property that we won't tolerate it." The supervisor added that while not wanting to specifically say that its just kids who get into trouble, that does tend to be the case in the summer.

"It's summertime, kids have a lot of time on their hands, ... they're not as directed," she said, adding that youngsters who do end up participating in such crimes are not necessarily bad kids, they just may be acting out of boredom and following along with their friends, ultimately getting into trouble.

At the summit meeting, officials also discussed the possibility of offering monetary incentives, thinking perhaps knowing a reward would be given that kids may turn in other kids and that anybody who may be witness to inappropriate behaviors may speak up.

Murray said that perhaps the most important thing that would stem from an incident of vandalism such as that which occurred at Pathmark is the life lesson the youngsters hopefully learned.

"Unfortunately one of the top lessons in life is that you can't just go around destroying other people's properties with impunity and think you can get away with it," she said. "Hopefully this will be the worst thing they ever do in their lifetime. I'm sure it will cause them a little pain within their family because there will be monetary restitution involved but if this is the lesson of their lifetime and they learn it, that's the positive out of this kind of situation. No human being was hurt so in the scheme of things it certainly could have had a much more tragic overtone. But it is still property and kids have to learn to respect other people's property."

In an effort to help curb such inappropriate activity, those who met at the summit discussed the possibility of integrating a program at local schools.

"There was certainly a great consensus amongst all those civic leaders and professionals that a great way to impress upon our youth in particular that vandalism is not the way to go, is through the upcoming school year," Murray said, adding that school officials felt that they could bring assemblies into the schools to teach youngsters at an early age that such behavior is inappropriate. "Both school districts were immediately cooperative and welcoming for that kind of a program," Murray said, noting that additional planning will take place throughout the summer.

Overall, Murray said that the town ultimately wants to send a clear message that such activity should not and will not be tolerated.

"We will prosecute vigorously and that will cause pain to the kids who were maybe just not thinking. [Such] bad, inappropriate behavior will cost the kid and will cost the family," she said. "If they take the lesson to heart, they get a little pain out of it from their parents who are going to be asked for restitution. But if that's the worst thing they do in their lifetime, then maybe we've done alright. They just have to know that there's a consequence to every action they take."