Vandals wreak havoc on Fel-Pro RRR camp

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CARY – Vandals kicked out at least eight windows, ripped doors off changing rooms, damaged heating and electric elements, and bent the door of the pool’s pump room at Fel-Pro RRR in Cary.

The McHenry County Conservation District-owned property, off Crystal Lake Road, serves 160 to 200 children a week during the summer months.

Graham Little is director of camping services for the YMCA of McHenry County, which manages the property. He said the extensive damage will be difficult to repair.

“We have a small staff," Little said, adding that he was especially concerned about an upcoming April 5 open house for parents interested in enrolling their children.

“We want them to think we take care of our camp as well as we take care of their kids,” Little said. “This is something that affects our whole town.”

McHenry County Conservation District spokeswoman Wendy Kummerer said there were no suspects, but footprints at the scene led to an abutting neighborhood.

“[Police] are talking to neighbors, kind of a neighborhood watch thing,” Kummerer said. “They’re really appealing to the public. They will just continue to talk to the neighbors and see if anyone knows anything.”

Damage estimates were not available Tuesday, but it did not appear that anything was taken, and there was no evidence of partying.

Little said the conservation district police – which has 11 full-time officers, according to its Web site – occasionally patrolled the area and that police believed that the damage occurred sometime last week.

“There’s only a couple of them, and it’s a huge county,” Little said.

The YMCA has become accustomed to vandalism through the years, but previous incidents included graffiti or a kicked-in window. Little said that in the past, damages were “nothing that couldn’t be fixed in an hour or two.”

Only after an assessment by insurance representatives will the YMCA know how long it will take and how costly it will be to make the facility usable again.

“It’s one thing to kick in a window,” Little said. “It’s another thing to completely destroy a building so it’s difficult to open it so that the kids can enjoy it.”

Reward offered

The YMCA is offering a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the people responsible for the vandalism at the Fel-Pro RRR facilities in Cary. Call the McHenry County Conservation District police at 815-338-6223 with any information.