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Paint and fire cleanup costs whole community, official says

Aftermath of the latest break-in at the Eastern Passage Baseball Association's field house, June 15, 2013. Brett Ruskin / Global News

HALIFAX — Brian Secord says the sight of it makes him sick.

Buckets of paint arc across the room’s clean white walls. In the corner, where a fire was lit, black streaks shoot up to the ceiling.

It’s not the first time the Eastern Passage Baseball Association’s field house has been vandalized, but it’s worse than before.

“The fire was the ultimate worst thing they’ve done,” Secord said.

Last year, an unknown number of intruders smashed the lock on the exterior door. They took buckets of paint — used to touch-up baseball benches — then threw them at the walls. They also lit a fire.

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Secord, president of the Eastern Passage Minor Baseball Association, says the facility is useless to them in this state.

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“Even if we did want to use it, anything we put in here of value, we can’t trust it’ll be here when we come back,” he said.

This week, HRM began repairing the damaged doors and cleaning up the paint.

There is still a strong smell of burnt wood and paint fumes throughout the storage area.

Secord says the worst part of the ongoing vandalism is that it takes resources that could otherwise have been spent on recreation needs.

“They can’t do it when they keep having to do maintenance on stuff that doesn’t need to be maintained or shouldn’t,” Secord said.

He says he hopes to have the facility cleaned by mid-summer to allow Eastern Passage to host a provincial tournament — something that will be impossible if the vandalism persists.

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