Construction at the intersection of 16th Street and 1st Avenue northeast has been disrupted by vandalism, according to the City of Weyburn. 

"We have had numerous incidents over the course of this project, with vandalism occurring on the site. Our most recent one has been somebody driving through every pylon located there, driving over them enough to wreck them and destroy them, as well as we had put concrete pins in, to form the concrete. Each one of these pins had to be GPS and placed to match elevations and certain spots, and they were all marked, and that evening in the night, somebody pulled what would be over 100 pins out of the ground," shared Engineering Director with the City of Weyburn, Jennifer Wilkinson. 

She said this has, "essentially set all that work back so that we could not pour our concrete forms, and then once we pour the concrete then we will be asphalting next to it. So we've just had a lot of vandalism, people driving through the site, destroying barricades. As well as through the course of the project, we've had numerous signs disappear with the detour, we have found some of the signs destroyed, and some of them have disappeared."

Wilkinson said they have put in a police report and the Weyburn Police Service, who is investigating now. 

"Especially when we do have barricades destroyed, because that compromises the site as well as people on site," she noted. "It is a construction site though, so there is risk to people's safety, so the Police Department is investigating the matter and they will be looking into it. So if anybody has information, we encourage them to contact the Police." 

The project was nearing the final stages and was on track to being completed on time. The vandalism, however, has caused delays to the timeline due to the resources and time needed to repair and replace the damaged components.  

"We have done the best we can to officially get this project done, because also we have lots of contractors on site and matching up their schedules and everything," she added. "We have been having the contractors put in some extra hours and some extra time to try and make up for these delays that have been caused. We're still hoping to keep a schedule that it will be wrapped up in the next couple of weeks. But it's a little disheartening when we do have vandalism that does set us back day by day that we have to spend more time, more resources redoing work that has already been done." 

“It is disappointing to see that a few individuals have chosen to disrupt projects in this way,” added Mayor Marcel Roy. “We ask everyone to respect public property and projects by our City meant to benefit the community.” 

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