B.C. swim meet forced to relocate 100 km away after vandals damage community's aquatic centre

Fernie, B.C., swimming coach Angie Abdou says her heart was in pieces when she looked at the shattered glass inthe swimming pool of the city's aquatic centre on Saturday.

The Fernie-based Elk Valley Dolphins Swim Club, where Abdou isthe associate coach, was about to stage a swim meet with more than 400 participants.

"It was such a punch in the gut," Abdou told Chis Walker, the host ofCBC's Daybreak South. "My eyes were so full of tears. I couldn't even look at the kids I[didn't] want them to see how upset I was because we had to keep them happy.

"It was just horrible."

The Fernie Aquatic Centre was broken intothroughthe facility's roof sometime between late Friday night and early Saturday morning,scatteringshards of glass across the pool deck and into the main pool,the city said in a statement.

The city says the break-in caused extensive damage to the centre, forcing a five- to seven-day closure.In a news release, the RCMP put the estimated cost of repairs at $30,000.

"Staff have spent the morning boarding windows, assessing damage, cleaning glass off the pool deck,along with the draining and refilling process," the citysaid in a Facebook post.

Cranbrook steps up

Abdou says she was dismayed at the city's decision to close the pool butgrateful that Aysha Haines, who was managingthe meet, insisted on making it happen andasked the City of Cranbrookto help.

"How are we going to call the Cranbrook pool and say, 'Cancel all your programming for the weekend and hire twice as many guards, and we're putting on a meet right now?'

"But she's very tenacious and she's a problem solver. She just got on the job, and with so much co-operation, by one o'clock, we had the pool set up in Cranbrook for a meet, and we were jumping in for warm-ups," she said.

With the assistance of Cranbrook, the swim event was movedto itsaquatic centre and the hundreds of participants and spectators from across the Kootenays, Alberta and Montana were able tostage the competition on Saturday and Sunday.

With the exception of60 swimmers from Calgary, Abdou says all theswimmers and their families and friends were able to make the 100 kilometre trip.

"It was unbelievable," she said. "The parents were really happy, and the kids were having fun."

Recurring vandalism atFernie's aquatic centre

The city says it's notthe first act of vandalism atthe aquatic centre. InOctober 2019, there were two separate occasions where vandals broke the centre's windows with rocks. Before that, vandals set a fire near the facility's lobby doors and caused damage to the building'sexterior.

Brett Logan, the city's director of parks, facilities and recreation, says they areconsidering installing security cameras outside the aquatic centre to minimize the vandalism.

"The amount of incidents we are seeing is concerning, and the significant damage is impacting our programming and costing taxpayers money," he said in a statement.

The RCMP says it is investigating the recent vandalism and asks anyone who has any information about the incident to call the Elk Valley RCMP's Fernie detachment at 250-423-4404.