WILLIAMSTOWN – “It’s always a slap in the face when some damage occurs for no particular reason.”
Those words from Pierre Roy, president of the St. Lawrence Valley Agricultural Society, after assessing the damage to the Williamstown fairgrounds.
Seven screens on The Meeting Place building were ripped out and six windows have pellet holes in them.
Roy says they are getting an estimate on the damage and will decide later whether to file an insurance claim.
“We’ll repair it and life will go on. It’s just an unfortunate thing that happened,” said Roy.
There were a number of cars, boats and trailers tucked away for winter storage inside the building but Roy says none of them were damaged.
He says none of the other buildings on the property have damage because winter covers had already been put in place.
“We always put covers on those windows. We had done some but we hadn’t done them. And, of course, the person attacked the ones that didn’t have covers.”
Roy says this mishap doesn’t necessitate a review of security and access to the fairgrounds, which are managed entirely by agricultural society volunteers.
“The fairgrounds have been open to everyone for years and our record of vandalism is very low,” he said. “We can’t protect against everything in the world and sometimes stupid things happen for whatever reason and that’s one of those things.”
A woman from Williamstown, 42, is facing charges of mischief over $5,000, careless use of a firearm and possession of a dangerous weapon.
The episode Tuesday forced the partial lockdown of two schools for just over 30 minutes after a woman was seen carrying a firearm along John Street.
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