Vandals target local church

By Rose Willigar
The Record
SPRINGHILL: Vandals broke four windows at St. David's Presbyterian Church on two separate occasions between March 8 and March 10.
Church member Brenda Boran said the first two broken windows were noticed Monday afternoon while the other two were noticed Tuesday afternoon. All four windows were located at the back of the church.
"After notifying the Springhill Town Police on both occasions we had to secure the windows with plastic and wood to prevent weather from getting inside," Boran said.
"The police visited the nearby school here on Junction Road to advise students from going near the church," the church member said.
Boran said this is not the first act of vandalism the church has fell victim to. Last summer while undergoing extensive renovations and an expansion vandals were able to enter the side of the church where the expansion was underway and the church's sound mixer was stolen.
"The people who stole the sound mixer were caught but not before we had to replace it with a new one that cost $500," Boran said.
Renovations to the church came with a $100,000 price tag which, according to Boran, about half of the funds were covered through various grants available, accessibility Nova Scotia and grants through the church itself. The remaining half of the funds has been coming from fundraising events put on by St. David's Presbyterian Church members.
"The church has been brought up to proper fire codes, made completely wheelchair accessible, an addition added and included in bringing the building to fire code standards old paneling was tore out and drywall put in with proper exit signs and emergency lights placed throughout the church.
Events like the Jiggs Dinner held this past Saturday and the Country Kitchen Party which has been re-scheduled for March 28 at 7pm are raising funds for the new wheelchair accessible elevator installed at the church.
"We had to re-schedule the Country Kitchen Party because of poor weather on the date we were originally going to have it," Boran said.
The church member said it's disheartening when vandals are doing damage to the church that many of the congregation have spent hours pitching in with a lot of the renovations, not to mention the time it takes to clean up the mess left behind like with the last incident with the broken windows.
"My husband and I spent three hours cleaning up the mess left by the vandals the first night and then had to turn around and do it again the next day," Boran said.