Peter Nordeen Park, located in the heart of Gwinn, is a regional recreational gem. It’s naturally scenic, has play equipment, is close to the Escanaba River and is conveniently located within walking distance of many residences.

Unfortunately, being such a nice spot to spend time, it’s been attracting the wrong kind of attention lately.

Forsyth Township announced on Facebook this week that the park’s restrooms now will be shut down when Gwinn Middle/High School lets out, calling recent vandalism “just the latest string of instances of this type.”

It posted a video of toilet paper strewn across the floor of a restroom, which should not be the type of thing that greets visitors.

The township means business. It said the next step will be banning the restrooms for youths without a parent or guardian present.

It also is reviewing camera footage. If the township can isolate or determine who was responsible for the vandalism, it will consider options.

“Kids believe — probably correctly — that they can’t/won’t be held accountable by the legal system,” the post reads. However, the township stressed that civic action remains viable.

You can’t blame Forsyth Township for this course of action. It acknowledged that it hates to shut down restrooms because it punishes innocent people. Also, likely only a small group of people are causing the damage, “not the many township youth who hang out in what is just as much their park as it is anyone else’s.”

The township asks anyone who knows who’s responsible for the vandalism to let the township know so the public again can have unfettered access to Nordeen Park. The people identifying the perpetrators will not be identified.

The post ends with: “Parents, please talk to your children.”

Maybe the parents don’t know what’s going on, but youngsters should be instilled a sense of community responsibility early in their lives. Messing up a park restroom might seem like harmless fun at the time, but at some point someone has to use the unclean facilities, and someone else has to clean them up.

We hope this situation proves to be a good learning lesson for area youth.