The Kenai Multipurpose Facility has reopened after a minor vandalism took place in the public facilities.
According to Kenai City Manager Terry Eubank, it was not significant vandalism that took place, but it’s still an issue that the community would like to stop.
“I don’t think there was any permanent property damage, or anything like that. And that’s what we’re trying to keep from getting to. We just don’t want it to escalate. We’d like to try to nip it early,” says Eubank.
Kenai Parks and Recreation Director Tyler Best says that typically once a year, that a light level of vandalism takes place. This time, it was stuffing paper towels and flooding the bathroom.
“And how we combat that is we just will close the facility for a week and then when we’re done, we don’t have any vandalism issues for the rest of the year,” says Best.
Both Best and Eubank agree that they’re glad the vandalism is extremely minor, because they both describe the multipurpose facility as something unique and special to the area.
“We want the facility to get open and people be able to use it and enjoy it,” says Eubank. “There’s not another rink to my knowledge in the state that’s ran the way this rink was ran.”
Best says that this rink is very special to the community because it allows anyone to go and skate whenever they like, provided it’s not being used for a scheduled practice.
“The kids are walking into the Kenai rink to go and just go play a pickup game of pickup and that’s not always a super common thing. A lot of times, they’ll be fully enclosed or they’re outdoors and they get snowed on, and this one’s kind of a hybrid. So, it’s a it provides a cool opportunity for kids in the community to skate.”
Overall, both individuals are grateful that the damage wasn’t significant, but hope that vandalisms to the Multipurpose Facility will make a complete stop in the future.