WASHOUGAL — The president of the Camas-Washougal Pickleball Membership is asking for elevated safety measures at Wolfe Courts after a storage field containing a defibrillator and a wide range of tools was stolen in late October.
One of many membership’s two steel bins was taken from the courts at Hathaway Park in Washougal, in keeping with the Washougal Police Division. The field contained an automatic defibrillator, towels, batteries, lost-and-found objects, water bottles, and pickleball balls and paddles, amongst different objects, Camas-Washougal Pickleball Membership President Lynda Boesel stated.
“It had anything that we needed,” Boesel stated. “I’m not going to put those rigid boxes back out in the open because, in my opinion, we’re just a target, so we have to find a better security system.”
Boesel stated she found the 6-foot field was lacking when she went to the courts on the morning of Oct. 25.
“It was my birthday, the weather was great, and I had planned on playing. I walk onto the courts, and somebody says, ‘What happened to the box?’” she stated. “I had to walk out to the parking lot because I was so upset.”
The locked field was connected to a chain-link fence on the west aspect of the courts, Boesel stated. The membership had a coded lock-box on the aspect of the storage container that held the important thing.
“It was very well secured. Somebody had to have somehow gotten to the inside of the box because it was bolted from the inside in three places to a two-by-four that was chained and bolted to another two-by-four outside of the fence.”
Boesel filed a police report however admitted that “there’s not really much they can do.”
“Based on the size and weight of the box, I would assume a vehicle had driven up the paved path from the upper Hathaway Park parking lot when the theft occurred,” Washougal police officer Kyle Kinnan stated in a report. “There is poor lighting in this area and no cameras. I discussed with Lynda about seeing if they could install motion lights.”
The courts have had different points up to now, Boesel stated.
“We did have an incident last year when two leaf blowers were taken, but that was a case of negligence on somebody’s part of not locking the box. We have had signs removed. The porta potties were tipped over. We have had your typical vandalism stuff, more annoying than anything.”
Boesel reached out to Washougal Mayor David Stuebe to request that the pickleball membership — a chapter of Vancouver-based Columbia River Pickleball Membership — be allowed to make use of a city-owned storage constructing subsequent to the courts.
“I have suggested partitioning a small space that we could use in there,” she stated. “We have decided that we could partition it off so that we don’t get into their things, and they don’t have to worry about our things.”
Stuebe appeared in favor of the plan when he spoke concerning the theft on the Oct. 28 Washougal Metropolis Council assembly.
“This really saddens me. I don’t like hearing this stuff,” he stated. “We’d like to see if maybe we can let them use that brick building to lock their stuff in, and I’m going to be talking to her again about some other options. But according to the police report, whoever stole that thing, it wasn’t kids.”
Boesel stated she goes to start out limiting the quantity of people that obtain the code to the important thing field.
“Our club is just getting so large that we have to limit the amount of people that have access to the codes,” she stated. “We have gained a little over 100 members since January.”
Boesel has launched a GoFundMe to assist pay for alternative objects however doesn’t count on to have them in place till March.
Within the meantime, Boesel is asking membership members to deliver their very own tools and provides.
“Members are stepping up to the plate,” she stated. “I’ve told everybody, ‘My apologies, but you’re going to have to bring your own balls. If you have leaf blowers, please bring them. If you have any squeegees or any kind of cleaning items, please bring them,’ because we have nothing.”
Boesel stated that the pickleball membership generates income for Camas and Washougal through tourism. And the group donated two-thirds of the cash it raised at its annual fundraiser earlier this yr to Washougal police and the Camas-Washougal Fireplace Division.
“We are a big part of this community here in Washougal. We want to maintain our reputation because of the support that we get,” Boesel stated.
The GoFundMe has raised greater than $4,000 at clbn.us/pickleballcourts.
“We have 300 members, and part of the membership (fees) that we get goes toward buying and supplying all the items needed to play at Hathaway Park,” Boesel stated. “Our club just cannot afford to replace these items. That’s why I’m asking for a GoFundMe, because I don’t want to deplete the current funding for our chapter.”