Youth Centre Flooded
By John Swartz
A dumpster sits in front of the Orillia Youth Centre. You can see items poking above the sidewalls. It’s nearly full of what was useful things, but are now junk.
“We lost a lot of stuff that supports our youth, from clothing to sports gear, to all of our Halloween and Christmas stuff,” said Kevin Gangloff.
Gangloff, the director of the youth center, and some volunteers have been cleaning out the basement, not because they couldn’t do so in the spring, but because the basement flooded.
“Thursday morning we got a notice from the superintended one of the tenants upstairs, they were having issues with their hot water. We determined they’ve been having issues for three or four days, so water’s been running free for about four days,” said Gangloff.
The basement is only half depth of normal, or the loss might have been greater. It was packed with all kinds of seasonal use items, including percussion instruments, some waiting for a program to start, some used regularly for open mic nights and in-house concerts.
“We want to be aware of mold and just getting stuff out. You’ve got to deal with the disappointment of loosing stuff. That’s what it is,” he said.
Gangloff consulted with R & F Construction, one the area’s disaster clean up experts, and was told because the things were under 3 to 4 feet of water for four days, virtually nothing was salvageable. The drums and bicycles and other metal items should be able to be cleaned up and disinfected.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia) Main: Ethan Mask in the basement of the Orillia Youth Centre.
