The Rochester & District Agricultural Society had hoped to spend a couple thousand dollars on upgrades to the community’s skating rink this year.
Instead, the society spent $1,100 on repairs and “fortifying” the rink’s warm-up building over the holiday, said ag society president Helen Goertz.
On Dec. 23, the society’s sports director discovered someone had kicked in the door to the building’s furnace room over the weekend. Once inside, the vandal had removed the cover from the furnace so the furnace went out; they had also turned off the hot water heater. The water lines and the toilet were frozen, and cases of pop left for community children to enjoy had ruptured.
The vandal or vandals also cut the fuel line on the rink’s snowblower.
“We’re disinclined at this point to think it was kid,” said Goertz. “What kid knows to take the cover off a furnace and turn off a hot water heater?”
Goertz said it took 250 man-hours to raise the funds spent on items like new locks and industrial-grade steel doors. $1,100 represents all the money raised at the society’s September and October bingos, its primary source of revenue outside of grant money.
Add to that the 20 hours two men spent repairing the building, as well as two hours a third volunteer spent mopping up the ruptured pop, and you’ve got a none-too-pleasant holiday surprise.
“The hours that these people should have been spending with their families, they were spending down at the rink trying to mitigate or repair damage,” said Goertz.
Goertz suspects the damage was done Dec. 21, when temperatures dropped to -34°C.
Vandalism has dogged the ag society over the last year. Goertz said the rink was targeted this time last year, and a tractor shed was attacked over the summer. Vandalism of the Rochester rest area compelled the ag society to seek release from its agreement with Athabasca County to maintain the area. The county granted the society early termination of the agreement last month.
“I just want the community at large to be aware that these things are happening,” said Goertz. “It’s incumbent upon all of us to keep our eyes open, and if you see any suspicious characters, or you see people where they shouldn’t be, just to call the RCMP. Even if they can’t get there in time, it builds a portfolio of what’s happening.”
Goertz pointed out that the people most affected by abuse of the rink are children.
“We had families that were planning to skate there on Christmas Day. Luckily, we discovered it in time to prevent major flooding damage, but there was flooding damage.”
On the Friday before the vandalism was discovered, the ag society hosted a skating party for Rochester School students.
“If we have to spend the money on repairs, we can’t spend the money on doing free parties,” Goertz reflected.
She encouraged those responsible to find a different way to express their frustration.
“If they have a problem with somebody in the community or a particular group in the community, perhaps it would be better to deal directly with that group or that person to clear up whatever’s going on. But it’s not fair to the community as a whole to take it out on the community as a whole.”
