Pricey bronze plaques pilfered from Steinbach parks, city hall

The City of Steinbach is asking the public for help to find six expensive bronze plaques stolen from around the city, which it believes were lifted by scrap metal thieves.

City employees had noticed the commemorative plaques were missing from parks and gardens, as well as one installed beside the flag pole at city hall, beginning in April.

Removing the plaques would have been no easy task since they were affixed to boulders and benches, said parks and recreation manager Russ Dyck.

“The ones that were on big rocks were drilled and mortared in and somehow they ripped them out of there,” he said. “Others had tamper-proof screws, but somehow they had a tool. They weren’t the easiest things to get off.”

Some of the plaques are upwards of 30 years old and would cost about $25,000 to replace. City staff have reinforced other plaques around the city to prevent them from being stolen.

Mayor Earl Funk said the thefts are “in incredibly bad taste and are bothersome.”

“The stolen plaques honoured people and highlighted stories that were key to our community’s founding … it seems as though there is a lack of respect for the recognition of that shared history,” Funk said in a news release.

Some of the panels told the history of the parks in which they were placed and the families who sponsored their construction. One plaque, which went missing from the Helena Loewen Garden in the city centre, depicted a map of the 18 homesteads in 1874 that would eventually become the city of Steinbach.

“It’s just unfortunate. We try to preserve history by putting up these plaques. People spend money on it, and then they get stolen for a few bucks of scrap,” Dyck said.

Scrap metal theft has been on the rise in the last five years, Dyck said. Last year, Steinbach hired a private security company to patrol residential developments to reduce the theft of copper wiring. Houses under construction were repeatedly being damaged.

At a city council meeting last week, the administration suggested several ways to spend a $200,000 grant from the province earmarked for security-related upgrades.

Among the options was to spend $18,000 to $24,000 to replace the bronze plaques with other material that’s “less desirable for scrap metal thieves” corporate services manager Adam Thiessen told council.

Plastic or aluminum composite plaques could be considered.

City administration also suggested the grant be used to install fencing around the Southeast Event Centre and adjoining curling rink to “deter copper theft” and youth from climbing on the roof, Thiessen told council.

No decision was made.

Garth Doerksen, senior curator at the Mennonite Heritage Village, said he was disappointed to learn about the stolen plaques. He said the displays commemorate important people in Steinbach’s history, which is integral in helping residents remember the city’s past and guide it for the future.

“It’s through an understanding of history that we have a better sense of what brought us to the present moment,” he said.

The village is a large open-air museum on the city’s northern edge and a popular tourist attraction in the summer because of its live re-enactments of Mennonite settler life.

The senior curator said he hopes the thefts open a conversation about the reasons for the disappearance of the plaques.

“I think there’s also something there about trying to find out the motivations for why that might have happened and then try to address those,” he said.

No displays or plaques have been stolen from the museum, Doerksen said.

RCMP, community safety officers and private security contracted by the city have been informed about the thefts and ask anyone with information to call the city at 204-326-9877 or the Steinbach RCMP at 204-326-4452.

nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca