John Simmons was at Cathedral Park on Tuesday, smoking and reading messages left on a makeshift shrine created on and around a monument in the center of the park in honor of his 15-year-old daughter and three other teenagers who died in a car crash a week ago Sunday.

He's been there nearly every day since his daughter, Rose Simmons, and her friends, Julian Martinez, Kate Klein and Alyssa Trouw, all 16, died in a collision with a suspected drunken driver on Old Las Vegas Highway. At the park, Rose's father is surrounded by her peers, and by the flowers and letters and photos they've left there to honor her and the other dead teens. He may not have that luxury much longer.

"The city is going to come clean this up," he said. "So we need to come get pictures of all of this if we want to put it in a book or something."

Simmons said he had heard the city of Santa Fe planned to clean up the shrine as early as Thursday.

City Constituent Services liaison Sevastian Gurule confirmed Tuesday the city does plan to clean up the site, but when it will be done still hasn't been decided.

Gurule said the city has received calls from people concerned about the messages — some of which appear to be written with permanent marker — that now cover the flagstone base of the 14-foot bronze monument where the shrine sprang up.

"I've heard the words 'vandalism' and 'defacing,' " Gurule said.

But, he said, Mayor David Coss and members of the City Council are also highly sensitive to the feelings of the mourners and want to balance requests that the shrine be removed and the wishes of those who want it to remain a little longer, or become permanent.

The shrine was established the afternoon of the crash. It began with a few vases of flowers placed at the base of the sculpture. The park is city property, but the sculpture was paid for with funds raised by a civic group known as the Cuartocentenario Cathedral Park Monument Committee. Erected in 2003, it depicts Spanish soldiers, priests, settlers, farm animals, crops and tools brought to the New World from Spain.

In the days since the deaths, the shrine has grown to include empty packs of cigarettes, the bottom part of a bikini bathing suit, tampons, cigarette butts, notes, photos, shirts, lighters, candles, water bottles, hacky sacks, razors and numerous other items. A row of tiny Tibetan prayer flags is tied around the legs of some of bronze figures. Others now wear Mardi-Gras beads. One sports a Viking helmet.

Time, weather and the devotions of the teenagers change the shrine on a daily basis.

Candle wax has melted into psychedelic patterns on the stone base. Once-fresh bouquets have become dried bundles of dead flowers. A bag of marijuana left there last week is gone. New flowers also continue to arrive every day. On Tuesday, the hot afternoon air was filled with the perfume coming from a huge bundle of fresh white lilies.

Santa Fe's teenagers have kept vigil there almost religiously since the accident.

Their reaction to the news that the shrine could soon be dismantled was passionate.

"No!" said Leah Tatom, 16, who placed the Viking helmet there because she thought the late Julian Martinez would have liked it. "They shouldn't be allowed to do that. This is their place. We want to build it up and make it a place for them."

James Lutz, 16, said if the city really cares about the teens killed in the accident, it should create a permanent place for the shrine. "The city just doesn't want to depress the tourists," he said bitterly. "Depressed tourists don't spend money."

"They just want the tourist to see their pretty little lie," said David Dean, 15, who attended Monte del Sol Charter school with two of the crash victims.

"I think the tourists should know what happened," said Sierra Clark, 15, also a student at Monte del Sol. "They don't want people to be upset, but people should be upset. This happened. This is an eye-opening experience. I've had tourists come up to me that think it's beautiful."

Just then, a 60-year-old local woman was explaining the significance of the shrine to a tourist from Scottsdale, Ariz.

The tourist, Diana Lendzon, 68, stood with her hand over her mouth and a pained expression on her face. Both Lendzon and the local woman, who didn't want to give her name, said they thought the shrine should be left up a little longer, to help the families heal, but that it should eventually come down.

City Parks Division Director Fabian Chavez said his staff will begin the cleanup with hot water and elbow grease, but might need to try solvents to remove some of the writing on the monument.

Teens who helped create the shrine began calling City Hall on Tuesday afternoon to protest its removal. As a result, City Councilor Carmichael Dominguez agreed to meet with the teens at 2 p.m. today at the park to discuss the issue.

Dominguez said he plans to ask staff to prepare a resolution establishing a legally sanctioned place for the shrine to remain temporarily until the city can find a place to build a permanent shrine to honor all Santa Fe youth who have died over the years. Dominguez said he plans to introduce the resolution at tonight's council meeting, which will be at 5 p.m. at City Hall.

Contact Phaedra Haywood at 986-3068 or phaywood@sfnewmexican.com