After several months of being told by the Village of Cache Creek to board up his unsightly storefront, the owner of the Oasis Plaza complied as his final deadline arrived.
On Oct. 15, owner Joe Carhoun removed the signs and boarded up the storefronts. And within 24 hours of finishing, the freshly painted plywood had been spraypainted with the message: “There are dozens of live birds trapped behind this wall!! Let them out! Wake up Cache Creek!”
Some of the new sheeting at either end of the breezeway had also been pulled down and damaged. Cache Creek’s administrator Dan Plamondon called it a “regrettable incident of vandalism.”
Ashcroft RCMP say that a 41 year old Cache Creek man is facing charges of mischief. Sgt. Michel Grondin said the man called the Detachment of his own volition to say that he had done it, but that his action was to free the birds trapped inside the building.
In the summer of 2013, Sharon and Laurie Rennie complained to Council that there were several pigeons trapped and starving to death inside the vacant building. It took several months, but the dead birds were cleaned up and the holes they used to get inside the building were covered.
“The owner indicated that the birds were all cleared from the building before the boarding took place,” said Grondin.
Plamondon said as well that he was in the building recently and didn’t see any birds.
He said the work done by Carhoun was to Village standards. “I think there may be some last minute paint touch ups,” he said, and maybe the removal of a large exterior electrical panel.
Grondin said the vandalism incident is still under investigation.