Upon arriving at work Friday morning Shuswap Association for Community Living (SACL) staff were greeted with broken windows, a large rock and a sign supporting Salmon Arm Secondary grads.
As of Friday morning, June 20, four of the large window panes at the front of the Shuswap Street building that is home to SACL and H&R Block were damaged. Two of the windows in front of H&R Block were broken the week prior, while two where SACL's offices are located were believed to have been broken early that morning.
SACL executive director Karen Hansen said an employee found the damage when they arrived to work.
"She called the RCMP and they said there was quite a lot of property damage in the downtown area," said Hansen. "And so police had driven by at 3 a.m. and noted the damage, but didn’t know who to call. So when we called them this morning they informed her of that."
Cleaning up the broken glass before boarding over the damaged windows, building owner Curtis Forrest pointed to a "massive" rock on the floor inside the SACL office, beneath a window with a similarly "massive" hole in it.
"And they set that sign up in there, they reached in and set that sign up," said Forrest, referring to a 16-inch by 24-inch colorpast sign with the words "Proud of our 2025 Graduates/Samon Arm Secondary School." The yard signs are sold by the school to fundraise for its dry grad event.
Forrest said there have been a number of challenges as of late at the building, including a back door being broken, locks being cut off a dumpster and fires lit at the back end of an adjacent parking lot and behind a neighbouring building.
"There’s an alcove in the back and they put roll shutters on because they couldn’t keep them out of there and they were lighting fires there in cans," said Forrest, estimating each window will cost $2,000 to replace.
The Observer has contacted the RCMP and will provide more information as it becomes available.
