NEW SCOTLAND — The Albany County Sheriff’s Office on Friday announced the arrest of a man they believe caused thousands of dollars in damage to a New Scotland park last month, forcing the town to spend thousands more to fix and protect it. 

At about 9 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 11, Jeremy M. Stark, 35, was arrested following a complaint from the town of New Scotland about damage at the Feura Bush Town Park, according to a release from the office.

The release states that Stark “was captured on surveillance video driving his ATV on park property and recklessly caused damage to the basketball court.”

Stark was charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief; he did not return a message seeking comment. 

During the September meeting of the New Scotland Town Board, a $10,000 county grant was allocated for fencing around the basketball court at Feura Bush Park.

The fence was necessary, Highway Superintendent Ken Guyer told board members at the time, because of vandalism from all-terrain vehicles. 

“Last year, we re-paved our basketball court at Feura Bush Park,” Guyer said in September. “We have new hoops on the court … It was just painted, lined. It looks beautiful.”

Guyer said the vandalism occurred after the lines were painted. 

As for the vandals, Guyer said, “The sheriff is working on it. We have [footage] off the camera. We have photos, we have videos. So the sheriff is working on that end of it.”

Supervisor Doug LaGrange told The Enterprise on Friday that the estimate to fix the vandalism to the recently-renovated court was about $11,000. 

It cost the town about $24,000 to renovate the court, LaGrange said. 

“We just spent a lot of money on the new playground there,” LaGrange said. The new playground equipment cost $162,000; it was paid for using American Rescue Plan Act, federal pandemic, funds.

LaGrange said Feura Bush Park was “really a beautiful spot, but just the other day I had a motorcycle, a trail bike, and a four-wheeler doing donuts and making jumps over the berm and stuff like that.” LaGrange said that video had already been sent to the sheriff’s office. 

Between Stark’s arrest and the just-sent-to-the-sheriff footage, LaGrange said hopes to deter similar activity in the future  “We have to clamp down on it and we’ll use every means we can,” he said.