Kleefeld washrooms open despite vandalism

The public washrooms at the Kleefeld Recreation Centre have been reopened, after being closed earlier this month.

The washrooms were closed because of graffiti and vandalism, with toilet paper thrown, sinks and toilets smashed, vulgar writing and drawings all over the outside and inside of the building, and hard-to-clean glitter plastered everywhere.

Jason Peters, manager of recreation and community services says he’s disappointed they had to close public washrooms.

“We’ve had excessive vandalism there throughout the spring and summer,” he said.

He said the centre has had problems with vandalism for a couple of years, and that he hopes that closing them sent a message to whoever was destroying the RM property.

Vandalism has been an issue across the entire RM, with streaks of which town is hit hardest.

The towns take turns having problems, usually changing every two to three years, with Kleefeld having the largest caseload this year.

Peters said Mitchell also has a history with lots of problems, and that he knows it will be a problem again in the future, just like Kleefeld.

The washrooms opened back up on Friday, but they might not be open overnight for now, with the park open between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Closing it down for good wasn’t really an option that was on the table, as it’s at a public park.

“We certainly do want to leave it open to the public, we don’t want to have to close them,” said Peters.

The recreation department and recreation board are making decisions on a long-term fix, which could include cameras, automatic locking or hiring people to close them and open them back up every day.