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Vandals cause rec hall closure

Kathleen Lippa
Northern News Services

Whale Cove (Apr 28/04) - Sheba Kabvitok is getting fed up with the lack of supervision at the hamlet's only recreation hall, a gymnasium attached to Inuglak school.

Paper towels clog toilets in the washroom, its walls are a mess of unsightly holes and marks.

Kabvitok, the recreation co-ordinator in Whale Cove, blames youth for the damage that has forced her to keep the washrooms closed, and the facility locked up most of the time -- putting a serious damper on recreational activities in a community hurting for recreational opportunities.

Volleyball players, however, have been practising there recently in preparation for an upcoming tournament in Rankin Inlet next month. "Kids have no respect for the washrooms," Kabvitok said. "Until we get money to hire supervisors, we aren't keeping it open every day."

Inuglak school is in charge of the facility during the weekdays.

The hamlet, in partnership with the Nunavut Department of Public Works and Services, oversees rec hall use after school hours.

Karen Gallant, Inuglak vice-principal, was quick to defend young people in the community.

"This is a very good community," she said. "The kids are great."

But the washroom problem in the gym, however, is known to staff, who have been struggling to deal with the clogged toilets there and the ugly, marked-up walls with no regular janitor on staff in their school for months.

"We had young students who volunteered to clean the washroom," she said. "They asked for rubber gloves and plungers."

Gallant thinks the toilets were defective, and may have even stopped working before kids got in there.

"The toilets didn't even flush properly I don't think," she said.

It doesn't help the rec hall's cause that a brand new addition being built to the school will eradicate the rec hall altogether.

There is no word yet whether the rec hall will be torn down completely, or all the materials moved and rebuilt in another location.

Gallant said the rec hall is "too small as it is" for the community's recreation needs.

But at the same time, she doesn't want to see any building just torn down in a community she says desperately needs all the buildings it can get, especially housing.

"There are no places for teachers to live," she said. "We really need buildings here."