It wasn’t necessarily unexpected, but the timing of Monday, July 6, night’s vandalism on a local non-profit’s centre of operations couldn’t be worse.
Laurence Edwards, president of Powell River Search and Rescue Society (PRSARS), had, just the night previous, put the final touch on the building—tacking the building’s sponsor sign up outside. The sign,a painted placard, says thank you to Powell River for its support in granting the Cranberry building to the society and donating the money needed to bring it back to life.
Neighbours called Edwards on Tuesday morning, July 7, to let him know his building had been the target of spray-can-toting vandals.
He arrived there to find blue painted graffiti over the Cranberry building’s brand new white garage door.
“It’s annoying,” said Edwards. “There’s been a lot of work done on the building, all by volunteers.”
The previously shuttered Cranberry building, which had served as fire hall, public library and daycare centre throughout its life, was sold to PRSARS in August 2013 by the City of Powell River for $1. Since then, about $40,000, all from community donations, has been spent on renovations and restoration, Edwards said.
If the vandals had sprayed the side of the building, the one facing Manson Avenue, the repair job would have been a more simple, but no less frustrating, job to complete, Edwards said. Volunteers repainted the whole building’s exterior as part of the restoration. But because the garage door is a textured material, Edwards doubts that he will be able to remove the spray paint and will be forced to repaint the complete door.
“We work for the citizens of Powell River for their safety and have been very well supported for which we can’t thank them enough,” Edwards added, “but there is always some bad or stupid apple that has to do this kind of nonsense.”
He added that vandalism has become a growing concern in Cranberry and a neighbour had asked permission to have to a security camera pointed at his house from the top window of the operations centre. “Too bad we didn’t do the same thing,” said Edwards.
Anyone with information about the incident can contact Powell River RCMP at 604.485.6255 or CrimeStoppers at 1.800.222.TIPS (8477).
