If you take a trip to Boswell, residents say the small community usually welcomes folks with open arms.
“For the most part, Boswell is a nice quiet town,” Lori Baird says.
Baird would know, she’s a lifelong resident. She’s not sure though why someone would vandalize her community. Right now instead of a sign welcoming you to Boswell you’ll encounter a sign with graffiti on it.
“It’s a shame. It’s a nice little community,” says Jeff Yingling.
The welcome sign is one of the four spots that has been vandalized in town along with another welcome sign, a camper, and the back of a business. Police have not said who is responsible, but residents have their own opinions.
“We’ve had problems with drugs lately, a lot of heroin overdoses,” says Baird.
“I mean every community has their problem with drugs and everything, but there are other ways to go around, instead of vandalizing other people’s property,” Yingling adds.
Because Boswell no longer has their own police department, state police is investigating the vandalism in each location.
Baird works for Vantage Physical Therapy where the back of the business has graffiti on it. Last year the borough decided to shift police coverage from local to state police because they couldn’t afford to man the local department. Baird believes if they would have local coverage this may have been prevented.
Other residents, like Yingling, say it was unavoidable.
“It would probably still happen. I guarantee it because you’re not going to stop people. If anybody wants to do anything, they’re going to do it. They’ll all get caught eventually.”
Baird says she’s not sure how her employer or the borough plan to remove the graffiti. If you have any information about how this happened, contact state police in Somerset.