Globe Miami Times Connecting you to the Pulse of Globe Miami
On Dec. 12, 2024, the Pipeline OHV area just east of Globe welcomed a brand-new amenity for visitors: a restroom building with two vault toilets. It is part of a $300,000 project conceived from a 2022 community meeting hosted by the Tonto National Forest’s Globe Ranger District and the Tonto Recreation Alliance.
“We had several people show up from the community,” District Recreation Management Specialist Sheryl Cormack said December 12, just after the building was installed. “One of the items that came out of that meeting was a toilet, and so we looked around for funding for that.”
“I felt really proud, and happy for the community,” Cormack added.
It took only about five months for someone to vandalize this new federally funded amenity by shooting it up.
On Tuesday, May 6, a cleaning crew discovered shots had been fired through both restroom doors. One door was marred by six bullet holes, and the other by several more. The shots also extensively damaged the restrooms’ back walls and took a piece out of one toilet lid. Cormack said the shooting is believed to have happened over the previous weekend, May 2-4.
She added that there was no other information on the shooting, and no Tonto National Forest staff available to investigate, with one TNF law enforcement officer covering three districts.
“I just feel very disappointed and saddened that people treat our public stuff this way,” Cormack added. “This is all of ours, not just for we employees – if people could teach others to be kind and respectful and take care of things.”
As for repairing the damages, Cormack said, “We’ll have to live with this for a little while until we can get money to fix it.”
If anyone has any information on this incident, they can contact Sheryl Cormack at the Globe Ranger District Office: 928-402-6200, ext. 6221.
David Sowders, who now lives in Globe, has been in southern Arizona since childhood and grew up in Tucson. David earned an associate of applied sciences degree from Eastern Arizona College. He has 10-plus years of experience as a newspaper reporter and editor in Safford and Globe, and his articles have won several Arizona Newspapers Association awards. Writing, hiking and discovering new places around Southern Arizona are some of his greatest joys.
