Vandals caused thousands of dollars in damage to public property in Merritt last week.

According to the City of Merritt's public works foreman, Dan Hildebrand, “We've been having a bunch of vandalism problems.

“In the last week, we've had $2,000 worth of damage.”

Sometime in the early hours of Monday morning, several glass storefronts along Quilchena Avenue were smashed, including that of the Merritt RCMP community policing office.

The copper downspouts on the Spirit Square were pulled off and tossed aside in the same period.

The destruction has extended beyond downtown as well.

At Rotary Park, “They've been ripping trees right out of the ground that are three years old,” said Hildebrand at the park Thursday.

“They're breaking bottles in the kids' park over there,” he added, pointing to the Rotary Park playground.
Hildebrand said four young trees were uprooted and two were broken in half.

He estimated the original cost of each tree at between $150 and $250, depending on the species, but the cost of trees rises as they grow. The damaged trees had already been planted for years.

Taking that growth into account, Hildebrand estimates that replacing the damaged trees would cost $300.

Public works employees have attempted to replant some of the uprooted trees and repair those that are broken.

The Community Policing Office window was replaced on Monday morning, and the downspouts at Spirit Square have been reinstalled.

Although the damage is being repaired, Hildebrand notes that those repairs take time away from other projects.

If, for example, cleaning up broken bottles takes 30 minutes, “You're looking at an hour loss,” because that half-hour of labour would have been used on the public works department's other duties.

Hildebrand says he does not know what prompted the mischief, who was responsible, or even if the various acts of vandalism are related in any way.

However, Hildebrand does believe the damage at Rotary Park was the work of more than one person.

“It takes a couple of big, strong boys to move these trees.”