The Shuswap Agricultural Association has had some wins and some losses over the past few weeks.
In the "wins" category, there was last weekend's (June 14,15) Salmon Arm Demolition Derby and Swap Meet at the Salmon Arm Fairgrounds, which went very well according to association president Thomas Giszas.
Part of the derby win for the association was all the renovation work done in advance on the fairgrounds grandstand. Derby organizer Dave Schwandt got the wheels in motion on that with a call out to the community for help. Local businesses responded with about $16,000 in monetary donations, an estimated $15,000 in materials (as of May 6) and a lot of free labour, all for the benefit of the Shuswap Agricultural Association (SAA), which leases the south fairgrounds from the city and is responsible for maintaining the structures on the grounds.
"It was just something that needed to be done," Schwandt told the Observer. "Without the bleachers being done there was no derby."
A grateful Giszas said the SAA would not have been able to do the work on its own, adding there's still some to do on the grandstand, though that won't happen until after the Salmon Arm Fair, Aug. 22-24.
"Right now it’s perfectly safe; it’s just to finish it off properly," said Giszas.
The "losses" category includes damage done to the south fairgrounds' Heritage Lane buildings, where Gisza said "a bunch of the walls got kicked out." The association shared a video of the damage on social media with a request to "keep an eye out for each other and on what makes us a community of awesomeness."
Also among the losses was damage to, and thefts from one of the buildings on the north fairgrounds, which belongs to the SAA.
"In the last two to three weeks we’ve had fences cut and we’ve actually had some generators and stuff stolen out of our 5th Avenue goat barn," said Giszas. "The vandals, they pried a barn door – the bottom part of a barn door apart, and they were actually pretty ambitious… they crawled through and they hauled stuff through a small opening out the back.
"They were also were dismantling a drill press and taking it out piece by piece. We have a tool box in there and they were using our tools to dismantle this thing. It’s a fairly big drill press and… I think we got all the pieces before they could get away with it."
Giszas said the SAA didn't clue into the theft until members went looking for locked boxes to use for the 50-50 draw at the derby.
"They stole those too – there was three or four of them in there," said Giszas. "So we’re reviewing our video now to see what else was stolen out of there."
The thefts and damage to the Heritage Lane buildings were reported to police, who Giszas said were asked if they could increase their presence at the fairgrounds.
"It’s frustrating – just when you think everything is going well," said Giszas.
