Vandals have targeted two public washrooms in Okanagan Falls six times in the last couple weeks, most recently on Tuesday.
The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen said the bathrooms at Kenyon Park and Christie Memorial Park were intentionally flooded and tagged with graffiti that included inappropriate words and drawings.
“And some broken amenities, furniture, the toilet paper hangers,” said RDOS Parks and Facilities manager Justin Shuttleworth. “They seem to like to take the paper products and then flood the bathrooms with them.”
The RDOS said they received reports from witnesses who saw three young males running from the washrooms at Christie Memorial Park towards the Kettle Valley Rail (KVR) Trail between 4:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. on May 24.
The trio allegedly returned to the Kenyon Park washrooms an hour later, where more vandalism occurred.
“The horrible feeling of people not being respectful to public property, it rubs almost everybody the wrong way,” said RDOS Okanagan Falls director Ron Obirek.
Obirek added that the RDOS is looking into solutions to help deter vandals.
“We’re looking at security cameras to put into public places, the parks, and plus we are looking at community watch to re-engage a program with police,” said Obirek.
The mess has since been cleaned up, but the washrooms were closed for several hours and the total repair costs are estimated to be over $1,500.
“For each incident we close the washrooms for about three to four hours, depending on the need,” said Shuttleworth.
“Cumulatively for these six events we’re probably down 40 person hours where they could’ve been doing other things in our parks.”
All of the incidents have been reported to RCMP but moving forward, the RDOS is asking that if you see something, say something.
If you do have any information regarding these incidents you are asked to contact the police.