A familiar problem has returned to the North Battleford Civic Centre.
Unfortunately, that problem is vandalism, which has been an ongoing issue at the venue for a while.
North Battleford’s Planning Committee met Tuesday where the issue was noted by Leisure Services Director Bill Samborski in his monthly report.
His report focused on the latest steps his department is taking to address the problem. Samborski told councillors their facility manager participated in Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design — SafeGrowth training in January and will be working on a SafeGrowth project aimed at reducing the amount of vandalism at the Civic Centre.
Vandalism to cars parked at the back of the Civic Centre was the big problem a year ago. That situation has improved, said Samborski, due to additional light fixtures to keep that area well lit. He said additional fixtures and additional patrols seemed to have helped and there is less of that outside vandalism happening.
But that vandalism happened during the evening hours. These latest incidents are during the day and the interior, not the exterior, of the facility is being impacted. Samborski said the frustrating part is that this is happening on school days when kids were supposed to be in school.
“Right now it’s kids sneaking in around 11 o'clock, 11:30 in the morning,” said Samborski.
What appears to be going on is the kids come in along with the shinny players and when those players turn to go to the dressing rooms, the kids go the other direction and cause problems in the public washroom areas.
They have been “ripping dispensers off the wall, plugging toilets and that kind of stuff,” said Samborski. It’s gotten to the point where they are now trying to lock the doors during low-use hours.
He adds they have tried to work with different community agencies to try to identify the individuals involved.
