The door of the washroom at Spruce Haven Park was spray painted less than one day after the facility re-opened (Facebook/City of Melfort).

By Aaron Schulze

Vandalism

City of Melfort ‘disgusted’ with washroom vandalism, says future of facilities may be in doubt

Jun 14, 2020 | 3:29 PM

It was one day after the City of Melfort re-opened its playgrounds to the public when vandalism struck.

The washroom at Spruce Haven Park was trashed on the inside and spray painted on the outside during the evening of June 12.

The estimated cost of the damage is under $1,000. However, according to Brent Lutz, Melfort’s director of development planning and community relations, the emotional damage is more disappointing, especially after being closed for the previous three months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Disappointment is an understatement, we’re disgusted somebody would be doing that,” Lutz said. “Some of [Re-open Saskatchewan’s] regulations were changed with very little notice and we’re currently operating with a short complement of staff. I know our staff went to special effort to be able to get this all up and running in time for people to enjoy this weekend.”

Along with the vandalism, the fairy garden doors city staff hung in Spruce Haven Park were also ripped off. With city revenues down due to the pandemic, Lutz said it will be a challenge to keep facilities open and install extra features – such as the fairy doors and sanitization stations – if vandalism continues.

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“Even though these aren’t supervised facilities, it’s been our hope that the public would monitor themselves and follow the posted regulations,” he said. “We’re hopeful as well if they see someone doing mischief in these areas, they’d take note and pass that information on. This is for everyone to enjoy and someone is intentionally going about to destroy everyone else’s fun.”

Lutz added staff is continuing to install more video surveillance systems at various facilities in the city. A reward is being offered by the city to anyone with information on who was responsible for the vandalism.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow