Freshly painted SV Hill vandalized

SMITHFIELD<strong>—</strong> Sky View High School recently placed its initials on a hill just east of the school for the first time since the mid-2000s. Located on private property, the lettering on the “SV Hill” was removed and has been inaccessible until this season. 

The owner of the hill, Steve Parkinson, working with Sky View alum and Real Salt Lake co-owner Dell Loy Hansen and the Sky View administration has granted the school limited access to the hill to reestablish its lettering and maintain it as needed. 

“Mr. Parkinson, who owns the property, with the help of Dell Loy Hansen too with liability insurance stuff, we were able to get it back up there,” SV principal Dave Swenson said. “Mr. Parkinson has been really congenial to let us, by permission only at times, to be up there to do the things we need to do.”

In preparation for the Bobcats’ Homecoming game Friday evening, many SV students spent Thursday afternoon stringing lights around the outside of the lettering in an effort to light the SV for the first time more than six years. However, when Smithfield residents and Sky View students woke up Friday morning, they were greeted with a crimson “S” and gold “V” on their hill. 

Swenson, along with some other administration, went up early to see the vandalism first hand. 

“We went there this morning and looked at it, and we saw the cans of paint that they had left. So, I thought okay, all we need to do is find out where they bought that from and scan it. We found a name on the receipts and started from there,” Swenson said. “We had it done by about 10:30.”

Swenson said in total, three Logan High students were involved in the painting. Along with the paint, many SV students had also heard that the lights they had surrounded the letters with had been destroyed. Four lights were broken during the night, but those were accidental and the majority of the lights remain intact and ready to go. 

By 11 a.m. Friday, one of the Logan High students had already visited with Swenson and pledged to join a group of Sky View students Friday afternoon to restore the SV to its original white colors. 

“They’ve been good to work with, and they want to help,” Swenson said. “This kid didn’t rat out them, but he did confirm there was only three of them. Originally there was some speculation that some football players were involved, but that wasn’t the case.”

Swenson did not know if the vandalism would result in any suspensions, but said he was working with Logan principal Shane Ogden. Swenson did say he expects charges of criminal mischief and/or trespassing to be levied by local law enforcement, but he was just glad the students were willing to help repaint the SV. 

The shenanigans should only heighten the intensity of Friday night’s football game between valley-rivals Sky View and Logan. That game is scheduled to kickoff at 7 p.m., and will be aired on KVNU (610 AM, 102.1 FM) with the Grizzlies play-by-play and KLGN (1390 AM, 103.3 FM) with the Bobcats play-by-play. The game audio will also be streamed live on <a href=”http://610kvnu.com/” target=”_blank”>610kvnu.com.</a> 

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