Less than one week after being vandalized, the Newton County Fairgrounds were hit again Monday.
And this time it was a lot harder.
According to Marc Smallwood, president of the A&M Society which runs the fairgrounds, vandals broke into the youth building sometime Monday evening and spray-painted the walls, floors, doors, lights and tables, emptied fire extinguishers, and smashed the glass 4-H display case.
“They totally destroyed the inside of the building,” Smallwood said.
He estimated the damage at between $5,000 and $10,000.
Smallwood said the break-in must have occurred sometime after 2:30 p.m. Monday afternoon, when the maintenance man left. He said he received a call at around 10:30 p.m. that night informing him of the burglary. According to Smallwood, Neosho police officers made the discovery after noticing the lights were on in the youth building. Smallwood said the vandals got in by knocking out a bathroom window.
Monday’s incident was actually the second within a week at the fairgrounds. Last Thursday, burglars broke into the same youth building, Smallwood said, destroying and toting off 4-H projects that were being kept there. However, on that occasion at least, that was pretty much the extent of the damage, he said. He thinks the same persons came back Monday to finish the job.
“It will add up pretty good this time,” Smallwood stated.
To make matters worse, he said, is the youth building had only been remodeled this year. The building had received a new floor and fresh paint job and brand new tables were brought in.
“Everything we had just done they hit,” Smallwood said.
He said the latest two casesof vandalism at the fairgrounds are the only ones he can recall within the last eight to 10 years or so. At that time, some youths had been caught in the act, he said, and were made to clean up the damage. They were also made to work during the Newton County Fair while wearing signs or T-shirts that explained why, Smallwood said.
He indicated that vandalism is always a possibility at the fairgrounds because of the very openness of the premises.
“It’s kind of a problem we have at the fairgrounds,” Smallwood said. “We don’t want to fence it off because of the cost. And also a lot of people like to take walks out there — and that’s a good thing. But then something like this happens and we’ve got to put a stop to it.”
Kim Bowman, with the Ozark Saddle Club, said the area around the show arena, also at the fairgrounds, had been trashed, literally, a couple of weeks ago, but wasn’t touched in last week’s case of vandalism. Bowman said she was not aware of the latest incident, however, and didn’t know if the Saddle Club premises had also been molested.
The Neosho Police Department is investigating.
