Community Pitches In After Vandals Cause 201,000 Gallons of Water to Flood Bonanzaville
Donations will help with the water bill, potential damage, and additional security
WEST FARGO, N.D. –Sometime last week, vandals turned on water spigots at Bonanzaville and caused more than 200,000 gallons of water to flood.
“At first I was really confused, I wasn’t really sure where that amount of water could come from. When I came back into the village and walked up to the church you could hear it when you got closer but as I approached you could see the water coming out of both of spigots,” Missy Warren, special events coordinator at Bonanzaville, said.
She says the water department estimates a $2,000 water bill, but they’re working with the city to come up with the solution.
A GoFundMe page has been created for the cleanup.
“The community has been absolutely phenomenal. Their support— we’re so grateful,” Brenda Warren, executive director of Bonanzaville said.
While they’ve already exceeded their fundraising goal, any extra money raised will go towards a better security system for the Historical Society. They say their cameras don’t cover the area where the incident happened.
“If this does become a problem in the future we’re able to see a very clear picture of who or what had done the damage,” Missy said.
The staff at Bonanzaville says a contractor will help break up the ice and haul it all out.
“It’s extremely hard to assess the amount of damage just because of the sheer amount of water that is frozen, and we’re lucky that we’re in the winter months right now, we’re very blessed the water is frozen and we didn’t lose 201,000 gallons in buildings as well,” Missy said.
Those at Bonanzaville say it’s devastating vandals would do something like this to a place with so much historical significance.
“It’s hard to comprehend that someone would come and break into Bonanzaville and do such a hurtful thing to artifacts, buildings that date back to the 1800’s. It’s just mind-boggling why someone would do such a thing,” Brenda said.
Bonanzaville has also set up an account with Bell State Bank in West Fargo for donations.
