BY JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — The Police Department is asking for help in finding a local bike rack thief. Yes, someone has been stealing the brand new bike racks installed on city property in local neighborhoods as a community service by the Our Neighborhoods community improvement project.

A total of ten creatively designed bike stands were installed by the group throughout the city and an unveiling was held by Family Resources Community Action, one of the partnership leaders, and the city on June 29.
Now just 8 of the colorfully-painted stands remain, representatives of Family Resources and the Woonsocket Police Department said Thursday. One was reported taken from Clinton Street at the Thundermist Health Center and the other from Market Square by Woonsocket Falls.
Dawn Camara, Way to Work coordinator for Family Resources Community Action and project organizer, said each rack is valued at $250 but the amount does not reflect the time and effort put in by the partnership to create them or the artistic effort by the teenagers from RiverzEdge Arts Project who painted them in their eye catching colors and designs.
“The racks were created with neighborhood input and participation in response to a community identified need,” she said. “We are asking the community to watch over the additional eight racks and to immediately report suspicious activities around the racks to the police department at 766-1212,” she said.
Woonsocket Police Department Lt. Eugene Jalette, the department’s spokesman, said Thursday that the thefts of the racks from city property were being actively investigated.
“We are investigating and in fact checking with local places where the metal racks could have been sold,” Jalette said. Steel is currently bringing in $100 a ton at metal scrap yards so Jalette said it is possible that the small quantity of metal in the racks was not an incentive for that type of theft.
“We are also looking at this as a possible act of vandalism,” he said. One of the racks may have been broken off its base from evidence at the scene and it is possible someone took it for purposes other than scrap value, he noted.
Police also do not know the time frame involved in the thefts and anyone with information on their disappearance could help police by contacting detectives at 766-1212 or the department’s anonymous tipline at 769-4444, he said.
The partnership working to install the racks included Family Resources and the RiverzEdge Arts Project, the Transportation Advisory Committee, the City of Woonsocket and the Steel Yard in Providence.
The groups’ cooperative work won the Our Neighborhoods Early Action Grant and with private business and non-profit support succeeded in bringing practical pieces of modern art to the city, Camara said.
“The bike racks are distinctly Woonsocket and something the whole city can be proud of, as no other municipality has racks exactly like ours,” Camara said.