Gus Bronson was out to see his favorite childhood fishing hole, not a dock stained red with graffiti.
He came across both Thursday as he strolled along the newly dedicated Ojibway Island fishing dock.
"It's a shame," said Bronson, 60, shaking his head. "People spent a lot of years trying to get this in here, and then this happens."
City workers sand-blasted the new concrete Thursday morning, grinding away a blood-dripped cross marked "R.I.P." and the words "East Side," "Tha Docks" and "Saginaw, Mich" that vandals left the night before.
The paint peeled but the high-pressure spray of water and charcoal-colored sand left a shadow of the text etched in the cement.
David Arriaga, a city maintenance worker, said crews will have to sand-blast the entire patio to remove the lines.
Hotsy of Mid-Michigan, an industrial cleaning company, donated a five-gallon bucket of Graf-Ex to the project. The graffiti remover retails for $140.
Bronson watched from a concrete stairway leading to the fishing dock. The Tawas man had seen the $2.27 million project on television and considered it a vast improvement to the riverfront and to his childhood perch-fishing hole. He vowed to visit it upon returning to Saginaw.
He said the words to describe his disappointment weren't suitable for newsprint.
Robert Simon, 73, paused near the patio in disgust as city workers sprayed black sand from the cement. He called the graffiti "an immature act of violence."
"I just hope somebody will tell who did it and punish them," the Saginaw Township man said. "I'd like to see them put in jail and have the key thrown away. That's how bad I feel it is."
City officials discovered the vandalism late Wednesday, just one day after the floating dock's dedication. They say the graffiti will cost about $500 to clean up.
William Bellen, a city maintenance worker, fears the vandals will return for repeat spray-painting sprees.
"They're like dogs," he said. "They mark their territory. When they come back and see what we've done, they'll probably do this whole thing."
Bellen could not say how to prevent future vandalism. The city would have to monitor the dock 24 hours a day, seven days a week, he said.
Bellen said he hopes police can nab the culprits.
"It would be nice to catch the people who did this and make an example out of them," he said. "But that's hard to do." t
Jeremiah Stettler is a staff writer for The Saginaw News. You may reach him at
776-9685.