More News

Vandals destroyed a fountain at the Urbana Regional Library Friday evening that a longtime Urbana family had donated before moving away.

At about 9:45 a.m. Saturday, a librarian discovered the three ceramic pots that made up the fountain were smashed open, said Cpl. Jennifer Bailey, a spokeswoman for the Frederick County Sheriff's Office.

Bailey said the damage to the fountain was less than $500. But the emotional damage is more severe, said Elizabeth Cromwell, the Frederick County Public Libraries' spokeswoman.

Bob and Barbara Marmet, who lived in Urbana for 30 years, donated the fountain as part of a "reading garden" before moving to Florida. When the library opened in November 2006, the Marmets traveled to Urbana to be part of the celebration, after paying for the design and construction of the reading garden.

"We love the out of doors," Barbara Marmet is quoted as saying in a newsletter from the library at the time. "And our family has always been involved with Frederick County Public Libraries."

Barbara Marmet was the former owner of radio station Key 103, and she had been on the Frederick County Public Libraries' board of trustees for 12 years.

The door to a nearby generator room was also smashed in, a direct cost to Frederick County, Cromwell said.

Since the incident, Cromwell said broken glass bottles have continued to appear overnight near the garden, and on Monday at nearly 6 p.m. she discovered more bottles after the site had been cleaned up.

Cromwell, who lives in Urbana, said there have been incidents of vandalism in Urbana over the last few weeks, in which homes and cars have been sprayed with graffiti. She said she wondered if the incident at the library was connected to the other vandalism.

Bailey said the Sheriff's Office has been investigating other incidents of vandalism in Urbana that occurred about a month ago, but said the investigating officer had not seen much information cross his desk recently. She said there were no suspects in the library vandalism.

"My guess is that a small amount of people are causing a large amount of trouble," Cromwell said.

Anyone with information on the vandalism is asked to call the Frederick County Sheriff's Office at 301-600-1046.

E-mail Christian Brown at chbrown@gazette.net.