By Charles Lefebvre

Crokicurl board vandalized again

Jan 16, 2019 | 2:14 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — The crokicurl playing surface at Strathcona Island Park has been vandalized again.

The City’s Parks and Recreation Department posted Tuesday morning that they had responded to another case of vandalism at the playing surface. The post on social media says someone use a screwdriver to chip out two bumpers on the playing surface and puncture the jugs that are used as curling rocks.

Scott Richter, a superintendent with the parks and recreation department, says the vandalism was noticed on Monday, and believes it took place over the weekend.

“We try to check that ice surface probably every other day,” he said. “That’s generally when we think it happened.”

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It’s the second case of vandalism targeting the crokicurl surface this winter. In December, bumpers on the playing surface were pulled out, and someone walked across the ice as it was setting, damaging it. The opening of the surface was also delayed due to the mild winter in Medicine Hat.

“We’re seeing vandalism all over the city, and I think we’re doing a better job of tracking it,” said Richter. “For some reason, we have these pockets of vandalism happening in certain areas of the city. We’ve seen it from the south, to the north, to the central. It doesn’t seem to be anything specific, but right now, it seems that whoever is doing this has their target set on this area.”

Richter says crews have repaired the ice surface, and they will continue to do it throughout the season.

He adds there are no plans to close the surface yet.

“It’s not overly complicated to fix, it’s more of an annoyance right now,” he said.