Wednesday, October 13, 2004

DOWNED FENCES ARE HAZZARD
Searchmont, Ont.,

Sault Ste. Marie O.P.P. is investigating two separate incidents where substantial damage was done to two fences.

Yesterday, O.P.P. officers were called to the old lumber mill in Searchmont where a fence prohibiting entry into the mill was flattened. It appears that someone pushed a fifty foot section of chain link fence over in order to gain entry into the mill. Steel fence posts that held the fence in place were bent right over and were touching the ground.

In the second incident a large gate protecting a lagoon in the Heyden area appears to have been pounded off its hinges with a sledgehammer. At the other end of the lagoon area the fencing was cut open and rolled back.

These two fences are in place to stop people from entering into areas that pose certain dangers to the general public. The owners of the old mill and the lagoon erected the fencing to keep all unauthorized people out of these two dangerous areas.

O.P.P. Constable Bill Mackan says anyone caught trespassing under these circumstance can expect to receive a wide variety both criminal charges and provincial offences for their actions.