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Rotarians work hard to repair damage done by vandals on Main Street in Smithers.

Repairs made to Rotary Park in Smithers.
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Vandals destroyed benches, bricks and threw garbage around Rotary park August 7. Rotarians volunteered their Sunday to repair the damage. (Deb Meissner photo)

Sometime during the night of August 7, Gordon Williams Rotary Park (beside Subway) on Main Street in Smithers, was vandalized.

Benches were broken and turned over, bricks were torn out and smashed, garbage and bottles were thrown around the park.

The park is a gathering place at the beginning of Main Street, one you can see people using year-round.

Joe Tennant and several other Rotary members were clearing trails for safer community hiking to Malkow Lookout, on August 8, when Tennant received word of the vandalism done to the park.

“We were on such a high, feeling great helping out in the community and making safer trails to hike, that I didn’t have the heart to let the others know what vandals had done to the downtown park,” Tennant said, at least not at that moment.

“Anger”, “disheartened” and “mad as hell,” are a few words people who gathered at the park Aug. 15 to fix the damage used to describe how they felt about the senseless destruction.

“We spend countless hours helping the community, and we love what we do, but giving a day to fix what others chose to destroy for no reason, makes me angrier than I’ve been in a long time,” Tennant said.

RCMP are investigating and Subway has provided video of the area taken on the night in question.

So far, no arrests have been made.

There is now video surveillance of the park, but Tennant and the other Rotary members feel it didn’t have to be this way.

“It is an expense of resources we could have used elsewhere in the community.”

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Rotary members work hard to repair the damage done by vandals in Gordon Williams Park, also known as Rotary Park. (Deb Meissner photo)
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Smithers Rotarian Joe Tennant repairs the brick work and benches damaged by vandals. “It’s disheartening,” Tennant said. (Deb Meissner photo)
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Plaque at the park beside Subway, where vandals recently struck. (Deb Meissner photo)